


the final step of transforming an apartment into your very own mona shrine

by sailboating



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Cat plushies, Getting Together, M/M, Slow Burn, Stupidity, Tarot Readings, a healthy amount of annshiho, college goro, customer service goro, for goro at least, going on what is obviously a date and not realizing its a date, goro akira ryuji and ann are roommates to be more specific, goro went to high school with them, is there a tag for like, kind of crack taken seriously, mentions of wine mom goro, mona is just a regular cat but he's still the star of the show, roommate au, that works, variety streamer akira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 41,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27071728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailboating/pseuds/sailboating
Summary: When Akira first began his streaming career, he quickly turned Morgana into the mascot of his channel, a beloved character amongst his fans who now live for the collectable Mona merch that Akira continues to put out. But Akira soon started using his merch source for evil, taking advantage of his capability to make any Morgana-themed item he could possibly want, just to keep for himself.He first began by filling his room with Mona plushies, figures, and pillows, covering his walls with Mona fanart that varied in quality and style, but eventually Akira’s obsession led him to purchasing custom Mona items that were completely unnecessary, and decorations such as Mona throw pillows and Mona blankets, a Mona retro clock, and Mona kitchen appliances began invading the communal spaces of the apartment.akira tries to give goro mona plushies and goro is stubborn
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 8
Kudos: 135





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this started bc i wanted akira to play hat in time and it turned into this. pls enjoy i had to google how tarot readings work

Goro’s head felt heavy, as if he were drowning underwater or his skull was being filled with maple syrup as he sat beneath the bright fluorescent lights of the subway that were making his head throb. He would usually tolerate his constant dull headaches to the point that they were only noticeable when they weren’t there, but sitting here on the last train of the night, trying to keep his eyes open while he focused on his chemistry textbook in his lap in preparation for his exam in the morning, all after working an unbearable closing shift at Frostbucks, his headache was starting to become too much to endure.

He had asked his supervisor, Makoto Niijima, for the entire day off from work, and he regrets, he very, _very_ much regrets telling her it was because he wanted to study for his exam tomorrow, because even though she agreed in the moment to grant him the day off, she ended up scheduling him anyway. 

It was _obvious_ that she only scheduled him out of pettiness, and for a Tuesday night closing shift that no one was willing to cover, of all things. How did such a child end up as his manager? They didn’t even have the same major at school – Niijima was in law and Goro in philosophy – or any of the same classes, but she still had the same competitive streak as she did in high school. She just wanted to see him fail.

Usually Goro wouldn’t let it get to him, because he _doesn’t_ fail. Usually.

He chose this chemistry class as one of his required general education courses because he thought the concepts would be interesting, and because he surprisingly grew to enjoy math when he took a logic course and realized that mathematical patterns were just logic puzzles with different variables. But some of the math in his chemistry class felt like it didn’t follow any logic at all, some of it didn’t even count as what Goro would consider to be ‘math,’ and as he stared at his open textbook, he wondered why he didn’t just take geology as his required natural science course instead.

His brain felt fried as he tried to understand the thermochemical process on the page before him, having to force himself to stay awake to read the same paragraph repeatedly as his heavy eyelids kept falling shut. It wasn’t making sense, it was just words jumbled into a random order that didn’t _mean anything,_ and he just wanted… sleep… bed… pillow…

Goro jolted himself awake as soon as he felt his eyelids close, blinking a few times before trying to focus on the textbook once again. He wasn’t used to staying up this late, having quickly adjusted to a schedule of working either opening shifts with Hifumi and Shiho before leaving for campus, or the early afternoon shift right after his classes. After high school he grew out of his capability to function off little sleep, and most nights he would pass out from exhaustion at an embarrassingly early time.

Of course Niijima had stuck him with a rare closing shift, making him stay awake far later than he was used to with Mishima as his only source of help. At least their store didn’t have a drive-thru to deal with, but the people who wandered into a Shinjuku Frostbucks late at night were draining enough by themselves.

Goro sighed as the stop for Shibuya was announced over the train intercom, closing his textbook as he stood from his seat and tried to keep his balance. Being on his feet again after standing for five hours straight at work and studying as much as possible in any spare time was excruciating for his poor fatigued body, he figures he’ll be asleep as soon as he crawls into his bed and his head hits his pillow.

Despite his exhausted state, he tried to remember the aspects of chemistry he would be tested on tomorrow that he had successfully memorized. Exothermic reactions lose energy and endothermic are the opposite. Easy enough. Now... what else was in this chapter? 

His brain was partially asleep and still in a mental state focused solely on blending frappuccinos, and all he could hope for at this point was that a night of sleep would let the information settle and become easier to understand.

As if any of the studying he’s done over the last two weeks has _”settled overnight,”_ what a naive thought. 

Goro sighed. He’ll just have to wake up early tomorrow to study before class. It’ll be fine. He’ll be able to get some sleep followed by a few hours of extra morning studying to make sure he’s prepared.

It’s fine.

Not to mention that Akira had Goro’s exam schedule in his phone so he would know when to tell their roommates to keep it down to not disturb him. And also so Akira would know when to go to bed at a normal hour to be able to wake up early to make coffee for Goro and wish him luck.

Everything is perfect and fine. 

Goro dragged his body out of the train, squinting his eyes at the sudden brightness of the station lights reflecting on the white tiles of the linoleum floor. His tired legs felt like anchors tied to the rest of his body, and his exhaustion was making it difficult to remember which direction would lead him home to his apartment building.

Goro eventually found his way in a sleepy daze, letting muscle memory carry him from the station along the path to get home. He fished around in his bag, feeling his hand brush against his work apron and textbooks until he found his keys and pulled them out with a jangle, shoving back in his headphones and loose pens that tried to come out with them.

He blinked a few times, shifting the keys around in his hand as he tried to concentrate on first finding his key to the building. _Which key is that again..?_

There were more decorative charms on the keychain than actual keys, Goro slid them across the metal ring that held them together as his exhausted eyes tried to make sense of what was what.

_The dolphin keychain that Akira got him at the aquarium... the Neo Featherman keychain Akira got him in Akihabara... the cactus keychain Akira got him from the flower shop in the underground mall... and.. aha! The key to the apartment building’s front entrance._

Goro proudly pushed the door open with his shoulder to be met with the sad, small lobby of the building before he crossed the room to get to the elevator, usually going straight for the stairs instead, but at this moment the idea of taking any more steps than necessary would be laughable if Goro had the energy to laugh. 

He shut his eyes for a moment after pressing the button for the third floor. The silence filled by just the gentle hum of the ascending elevator was almost peaceful enough to send him back into a state of sleep, until the elevator loudly dinged to announce its arrival at his floor. Goro absentmindedly played with his keys as he made his way through the hall to the refuge of his apartment, almost giddy at the thought of crawling into his sanctuary of a warm bed and sleeping away the memories of this nightmare of a day.

Keychain... keychain... keychain, _god,_ he had collected so many obnoxious little decorative charms from all the gift shops Akira insisted on buying cheap souvenirs from.

_’Aha!’_ Goro’s brain thought for the second time. Key to the apartment. Finally.

Once he inserted the correct key into the lock and pushed the door open, Goro almost collided with the tall frame of _Yusuke,_ of all people, holding a cocktail and laughing at.. the entire _crowd of people_ in his living room.

Niijima let Yusuke get out of his closing shift for _this?_

Goro’s eyes traced the room to land on his roommates that he actually expected to be in his apartment. Goro constantly feels like a nagging housewife around his three friends because they are childish and reckless and _messy_ until Goro has to force them to act responsibly and behave like the adults they should be. There must have been something in the water at Shujin, because just like Niijima, the three of them hadn’t matured much since high school.

Goro remembers going to high school with Akira, Ann, and Ryuji because every single day of living in an apartment with them feels exactly like what going to high school with the noisy trio felt like. How the babbling first years that were joined at the hip somehow pulled Goro into the orbit of their little friend group, he didn’t know, but he eventually became the balance the three of them needed to stay productive and actually put an effort into their schoolwork.

Of course that effort didn’t end up mattering in the slightest after high school, because Goro was the only one of the four who was even in college, the only one who had to work a real job that didn’t rely on luck and talent like the rest of them. And obviously the nagging that Goro did now clearly wasn’t enough to make them act responsibly if they were really having a party on a Tuesday night.

None of them ever acted responsibly because they didn’t… _have any responsibilities!_ The three of them just fuck around all day and sleep until noon and throw parties when Goro had to work a shitty customer service job on exam nights. It’s not _fair._

Especially considering what his three roommates _did_ do for work. Ann was lucky enough to be a model, having a job that relied on her natural beauty and charisma, and was constantly rewarded with free trips all around the world for photoshoots. Ryuji used his video game skills to make a living out of streaming action role-playing games, and even Goro could admit that Ryuji was so unbelievably good at these games that he understands why people found entertainment in watching him.

With Akira, however, he also made a career out of streaming, but his streams were... different. 

Akira was decent at games, mostly because he had been playing them his entire life, but despite Akira’s adequate skills, he wasn’t even close to Ryuji’s level of skill, instead mostly goofing around and entertaining his audience through means of his wit. Akira didn’t even play games in half of his streams, sometimes he would scour Youtube to watch videos with eerily low numbers of views or scroll through his subreddit and joke about whatever was on his mind.

Akira somehow managed to not only make a stress-free career out of simply being himself, but also cultivated a fan base that genuinely liked him, and Goro didn’t understand it at all. 

Well, he understood why people liked Akira. He was Goro’s best friend for a reason, he’s funny and intelligent, and there’s a certain appeal about him that made him captivating to watch. What Goro _couldn’t_ understand was the concept of a career based solely on being likeable, and while Goro didn’t have a particular fascination with streaming himself, he could admit he was a little bit envious that Akira had it so _easy._

Even without the unwanted guests in his apartment, the decor of their shared space was loud enough itself. Really, Goro should have never been surprised by the… _unique_ way Akira had decorated, now long used to the Morgana shrine their apartment had been turned into with the encouragement of their two blond roommates.

When Akira first began his streaming career, he quickly turned Morgana into the mascot of his channel, a beloved character amongst his fans who now live for the collectable Mona merch that Akira continues to put out. But Akira soon started using his merch source for evil, taking advantage of his capability to make any Morgana-themed item he could possibly want, just to keep for himself. 

He first began by filling his room with Mona plushies, figures, and pillows, covering his walls with Mona fanart that varied in quality and style, but eventually Akira’s obsession led him to purchasing custom Mona items that were completely unnecessary, and decorations such as Mona throw pillows and Mona blankets, a Mona retro clock, and Mona kitchen appliances began invading the communal spaces of the apartment.

And currently in Goro’s living room, his _sanctuary_ in which he had hoped even his three roommates wouldn’t occupy to be in their own separate rooms and _not_ chattering loudly amongst themselves so he could _sleep_ , was a crowd of people who, just like his roommates, also didn’t know what it was like to work real jobs. Well, really a _crowd_ of people was an exaggeration, considering it was only a few of his roommates’ closest friends, but Goro didn’t care because it was too many people nonetheless.

His eyes circled the room to take in the number of people who shouldn’t even be here in the first place, let alone holding cocktails and draping themselves over his furniture while they blabber without a care in the world about what time it is.

His glare first landed on Haru Okumura, who has enough inherited wealth to never have to lift a finger in her life, and spends her days gardening, knitting, and doing yoga and aikido with her girlfriend, law student Makoto Niijima, the _sworn enemy._

At least Niijima didn’t have the nerve to show up in his apartment, Goro was pleased to note as he shifted his eyes to the girl standing next to Haru’s opulent figure. Sumire Yoshizawa knows stress and hard work similar to Goro, but unlike him, she is still talented enough to do what she loves for a career, an olympic gymnast who has been enjoying her rest during the off-season before her rigorous training will begin again. 

Goro let out an impatient huff as he quickly analyzed the remainder of the group in his living room. 

Futaba Sakura: recently graduated high school and since has spent her time doing secretive activities she’s never explained in much detail, makes money flipping Yugioh cards online and lucky enough to remain under the care of Sojiro Sakura as long as she offers help in Leblanc. 

Yusuke Kitagawa: has a full scholarship to a college solely focused on arts, one that doesn’t have the tedious general education classes that Goro has to deal with. Goro can still sympathize with him having to work at the hellhole that is Frostbucks like he does, but Yusuke _apparently_ managed to get on Niijima’s good side and was able to get out of his usual closing shift by simply _asking_ her. And really, Yusuke had no reason to be in Goro’s apartment right now anyway.

Shiho Suzui: Ann’s girlfriend (introduced by Goro, thank you) who is studying to become a kindergarten teacher and is the roommate of law major Hifumi Togo, two of Goro’s best friends that he met when he was first hired at Frostbucks after graduating high school, and he continues to work early shifts with both of the girls most mornings.

Goro wondered why Shiho was here this late, considering she tended to be shy around crowds and he knew she has an early shift tomorrow, but really, Goro was wondering why _anyone_ was here this late at all.

Goro used his remaining energy to fuel a glare directed at where Akira and Ryuji stood near the couch, squinting his eyes sharply as he focused on Akira’s terrible posture. He watched Akira meet the scowl directed at him, his grey eyes widening slightly out of fear and uncertainty as he noticed the way the brunette was fuming at him, and Goro felt even more infuriated that Akira probably didn’t even consider the consequences of throwing a party on a Tuesday night. That he didn’t consider _him._

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Goro kicked off his shoes and crossed his arms over his chest as he glowered at Akira trying to hide himself with his glasses. Goro angrily marched over to where his roommate stood by the couch and snatched his glasses off his face to force the flustered boy to meet his eyes as he scolded him. “Do you even know what day it is? Or do you figure there’s no point in knowing because you don’t have to do _anything_ or have _anywhere to be?_ All you do is fuck around all day because you have the dream job of a middle schooler, and now you’re, what, indulging in college fraternity fantasies?” 

Akira’s eyes widened even more, Goro could clearly see his grey irises engulfed by his pupils without the lenses of his glasses blocking them. The light of the apartment’s common area reflected in Akira’s bewildered eyes, and despite the exasperation Goro felt as he watched his roommate furrow his brows, he couldn’t help but think that the deep, obsidian shades of Akira’s eyes were always quite mesmerizing, especially when the light’s reflection was making them shine like that...

Goro shook his head to disregard that thought and instead focus on Akira's attempt at a response, his face flushed as he waved his hands in front of him as to try to calm Goro’s anger. “N-no! Goro, this was just for–”

“I don’t care,” Goro sighed, interrupting Akira’s sputtering as he shoved his glasses against his chest. “I don’t want to deal with this right now. I’m going to bed.”

Goro turned on his heel to face the guests filling his living room, his eyes landing on Haru again as he sneered at her before making his exit.

“By the way, Okumura,” he gritted his teeth at her gentle smile, stepping towards her at an intimidatingly-slow pace, “you’ll have to send my gratitude to Niijima, as I am truly thankful for her scheduling and her management.”

Before Goro could escape to his room and _finally_ get the few hours of sleep he desperately needed, he heard Yusuke speak up from near the doorway.

“You were working tonight?” he asked curiously, his soft voice barely audible.

Goro huffed and turned to fully face the tall artist evading his household, feeling the glare returning to his face as he did so. “What did you _think_ I was doing?”

Yusuke blinked, showing no sign of registering Goro’s harsh tone before answering with a shrug. “Getting cake?”

“Niijima has been extremely inconsistent with the schedules as of late,” Shiho sighed before Goro could say something truly insulting, a troubled expression on her face as she sat on Ann’s lap in the living room. “I was going to complain to you this morning, but you weren’t there! Did ‘Fumi tell you she scheduled her for a clopen next week?”

Shiho’s shocked eyes glanced up at Goro once she had his full attention. “Niijima even tried to schedule me for tonight too, but I told her I absolutely could _not_ miss Ann’s going away party!”

_What?_

“I as well,” Yusuke’s voice added, but Goro didn’t turn to look at him as he went over his schedule in his mind. He could have sworn that Ann would be leaving for New York _next_ week, he was even planning to take her to get brunch this weekend so he could ask about her plans in the states over her three week work-trip and listen to her complaints about the terrible flight schedule. How could he have possibly gotten the dates wrong?

Goro’s eyes met Ann’s as he felt his face heat in a sheepish blush, trying desperately to not let any more of his embarrassment give away his forgetfulness. “What time are you leaving?”

“About an hour,” Ann replied, either not noticing the bright red of Goro’s face or choosing to ignore it for his sanity. She moved her hand to rest on Shiho’s knee as she looked at her with a soft, loving smile. “We’re all taking Haru’s limo to the airport,” she continued, both excitement and wistfulness in her voice as she looked back up at Goro. “And Ryuji picked up the cake, don’t worry.”

Her eyes quickly broke away from his to look at Shiho again, Ann’s smile turning into a loving gaze as her girlfriend in her lap returned her eye contact. Shiho rested a gentle hand against Ann’s cheek with matching fondness in her expression as she admired her features in the lights of the living room. 

Goro’s stupid hellbrain tried to tell him that he wished someone would look at him like that, but he instantly pushed the idea out of his mind.

“That was nice of him,” Goro said solemnly, wondering how he himself couldn’t even be nice enough to get the dates right, let alone get a cake for Ann.

He was definitely going to miss Ann over the next three weeks, she was his first friend in grade school and remained by his side offering her optimistic outlook after all these years, continuing to deal with Goro by countering him with an equal amount of stubbornness that he had. He felt bad about insulting her in his head earlier. 

And as much as Goro would consider him and Ryuji to be what the blond boy describes as _’bros,’_ he couldn’t help but wish that it was Ryuji who would occasionally leave for weeks at a time instead of Ann.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t have gotten here sooner,” Goro breathed out an awkward laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“It’s fine!” Ann reassured him, tilting her head to the side as she smiled up at him. “I know you couldn’t escape Makoto’s wrath.”

The blonde placed her hands on Shiho’s back to signal her girlfriend to stand, extending her arms to offer Goro a hug as soon as Shiho had stood up from her lap.

“I’ll miss you,” Ann said sadly once Goro was pulled into her embrace. “But don’t worry about staying up for me, though. _Akira—_ ” Ann suddenly spun around, bringing Goro with her in her hold and forcing him to look across the room at Akira, “—mentioned you have an exam in the morning.” One of her blonde pigtails obscured his vision as she reached up to ruffle his hair. “Good luck, Goro!”

When Ann stepped away from him entirely, Goro’s gaze landed on Akira’s bashful grin, his grey eyes already directed at his own, even having the audacity to wink at him from where he watched the interaction by the couch. Before Goro could think too much about it, his attention was stolen by Shiho’s soft voice next to him.

“Indeed, good luck to you on your exam tomorrow, Goro. You can tell ‘Fumi and I about it tomorrow between our shifts,” the brunette had a small smile on her face, but her expression had a hint of sadness as she took Ann’s hand in hers and sighed wistfully. “I’ll be relying on the two of you for entertainment over these next few weeks.”

Goro offered her a sympathetic smile in response, excited that he would have a chance to rant to his friends tomorrow, but still understanding her gloom of having to part with Ann for nearly a month. The couple shooed him off to bed, and a chorus of _goodnights_ and _good lucks_ filled the room as Goro awkwardly smiled back to the small crowd before making his escape to get ready for bed.

When he finished his nighttime routine, he made his way further down the hall to his bedroom to change out of his work clothes and finally lay down to actually sleep, only to be met with Akira in his path, leaning against the frame of Goro’s bedroom door with his arms crossed over his chest, rolling his head against where he rested it against the wall to look at Goro as he approached. 

His pupils were still blown wide from the couple of drinks he had, his cheeks dusted with pink and a smug look on his face as he raised a confident eyebrow at Goro. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

Goro sputtered for a brief second as he considered lying in an effort to save his pride and not appear like a bad friend, but there wasn’t really any reason to given how obvious his mistake was at this point, so he slumped his shoulders as he sighed defeatedly. “I thought it was next week.”

Akira laughed, a grin staying on his face from Goro’s honesty. “You’ve been busy with studying,” he shrugged, his voice soothing as though trying to coax Goro into forgetting about his stress entirely. “I just don’t understand why you would even take chemistry when it was the bane of your existence in high school.”

“I thought it would be fun,” Goro muttered, shifting his weight to one foot before breathing out a laugh when he noticed the confused and slightly horrified expression on Akira’s face at the thought of chemistry being considered _fun._ “I do actually find enjoyment in the concepts and some of the math. Stoichiometry problems in particular are quite amusing.”

Akira didn’t react, staring at Goro blankly for a few seconds until he was drunkenly giggling and raising a hand to his hair to twirl some of his curly dark locks around his finger.

“You’re so smart, Goro,” Akira cooed as he took a step closer, his smirk not leaving his face as Goro swallowed what felt like cotton swelling in his throat. “It’s cute~”

Akira wasn’t.. flirting with him... was he?

Sometimes Akira talked to Goro in ways that _maybe_ could _possibly_ be interpreted as flirting depending on how one looked at it, but it was never as obvious as whatever it was that Akira was doing right now. Akira was just a naturally flirty person, and the drinks he’s had must be making him feel extra clingy.

Goro’s heart was nearly beating out of his chest, and he felt the need to change the subject _immediately_ as he tried to steady his breathing. 

“I’m… sorry about what I said earlier,” he winced at the memory, lifting his gaze to meet Akira’s eyes that had only gotten closer as he invaded Goro’s personal space.

“I don’t care about that,” Akira’s smile softened as he moved his hand to brush a strand of Goro’s hair behind his ear. “I seriously can’t believe Makoto scheduled you tonight, though.”

“Y-yeah,” was the best Goro could offer in response. He felt like he could combust at any moment. What the hell was Akira _doing?_

“I texted you a few times while you were at work,” Akira tilted his head to the side, still smiling at Goro as he kept a hand on his face. “Once or twice.”

Goro hadn’t checked his phone since before his shift started, too busy re-reading the past few chapters of his chemistry textbook at every free moment he had to check for any notifications. He would have to remember to do that before falling asleep.

“I haven’t checked my phone tonight,” he explained sheepishly, directing his eyes down to where his fingers were twisting together.

“Studying?” Akira asked, likely not needing an answer to know that Goro often nearly drove himself insane before exams, but Goro supplied a nod in response anyway. 

“You–” Akira booped Goro’s nose to emphasize the word, making the older boy scrunch up his face awkwardly at the contact, “–will do great tomorrow.” 

Akira lowered his hand back to his side as he smiled proudly, as if his confidence would somehow rub off on Goro if he tried hard enough. Akira was looking at him expectantly, but Goro didn’t have any idea what he was supposed to do or say at the moment, clearing his throat before changing the subject again.

“Are you going to the airport with all of them?” he asked conversationally, hoping Akira didn’t notice how strained his voice sounded.

“I would,” Akira answered, shifting his gaze as though he were contemplating something before meeting Goro’s gaze once again, “but Ann knows I’m waking up early for you tomorrow and insisted I don’t stay up too late.”

Goro felt his eyes involuntarily widen at the tenderness in his voice as he spoke the sentiment. 

“For me?” he squeaked, too focused on searching Akira’s features to feel embarrassed at the shock in his voice.

“Yeah, _for you,_ ” Akira put on a crooked smile as he watched Goro’s cheeks redden. “I know you won’t eat breakfast beforehand if you’re left to your own devices…”

Goro tried his best to smile back at him, but it probably appeared more as a grimace due to his exhaustion and how awkward he suddenly felt under Akira’s gaze. Akira watched him patiently, a glint of amusement in his eyes from being long used to Goro’s odd reactions to affection, but Goro eventually managed to get his brain to function enough to speak again after clearing his throat. “I appreciate it.”

Akira gasped lightly as though he realized something, eyes lighting up as he placed his hands on Goro’s upper arms to keep him in place. “I’ll be right back.”

Once assured that Goro wasn’t going anywhere, Akira bolted through the hall, occasionally stumbling as he ran back to where their friends were still standing in the living room. He grabbed the black furball that was sleeping peacefully on the back of the couch, jolting Morgana awake as he ran back to Goro with the fluffy creature in his arms. 

“Here,” Akira chimed happily, passing the soft cat into Goro’s arms. “Mona’s tired too.”

Goro took the cat in his hold without question, one of his hands moving to pet Morgana’s soft fur like it was second nature. Akira knew Goro was quite fond of the cat, considering Morgana to be as much of his roommate as his three human roommates were, and the presence of the sleeping feline was often calming for Goro on nights he felt stressed.

Once Goro had accepted the cat, Akira was suddenly within Goro’s personal space again, moving so quickly that if Goro was an outside observer of the two he probably would have missed the way Akira’s delicate fingers flicked Goro’s hair away so he could press a swift kiss to his forehead. Goro stood fixed in place, his eyes bugging out of their sockets as Akira pulled away from him as quickly as he leaned in.

“Good luck tomorrow,” Akira whispered with a gentle smile as he moved away, still hovering close enough for Goro to feel his warm breath against his skin.

Goro tightened his grip on the fluffy cat in his arms, swallowing a lump in his throat as he felt a panic start to bubble inside him. He had to remind himself not to drop the heavy creature (he subconsciously noted to tell Akira to stop feeding Mona entire bags of cat treats at a time), and managed to get his legs to work as he rushed past Akira and into his bedroom, slamming the door shut and hugging Morgana for dear life as his back slumped against the closed door.

Goro had tried so hard to not develop a crush on Akira in high school, and he thought he knew better than to fall for his charm and his devilishly handsome face that rewarded him with not only an abundance of friends buzzing around him, but eventually an entire myriad of _fans_ interested in him, too. And Goro seriously could not have picked a worse time to suddenly be into Akira when he’s _living with him,_ so he had no other choice but to summon all his strength to redirect his feelings away from crush territory.

He didn’t _want_ to be helplessly infatuated with his best friend, it wasn’t his fault that there was just no one else quite like Akira. He understood Goro beyond words and indulged him in conversations that challenged him and, well, Goro didn’t become a philosophy major because he disliked challenges. 

He was profoundly fond of challenges, actually. He might even say that he loves them. And he loves the way Akira engages his mind, he loves the way Akira is a joyous presence in his life, truly a compassionate and heartwarming person, and he loves that Akira can be just as stubborn as he can. Which is why Goro really can’t help but love Akira.

_...No._

He didn’t mean that. 

The full thought was supposed to be that he loves Akira…’s company… 

Yeah…

Goro sighed, hauling himself off his door and setting Morgana on his bed before he stepped toward his closet to change into clothes to sleep in, trying to force himself to think of anything that wasn’t Akira. He tried to remember what he could from his chemistry notes while he climbed into bed, avoiding disturbing the purring cat near the foot of the mattress.

Goro pulled out his phone to set an alarm for early in the morning, blinking at his lockscreen that was way too bright for the darkness of his room, quickly lowering the screen brightness and letting his eyes adjust to the notifications on the screen. 

He saw a text from Hifumi wishing him luck on his exam and an apology for leaving the party before he got home, and there were a few messages from his work groupchat in which Mishima mentioned that _someone_ booked him for a double shift tomorrow. Goro pulled up the message app, ignoring the work groupchat in which it already looked like Mishima had resolved the issue anyway, and opened the messages Akira had sent him during his shift.

> **(6:12pm) Akira:** gorooo (=^-ω-^=)∫ 
> 
> **(6:12pm) Akira:** can u pick up a cake 
> 
> **(6:13pm) Akira:** any cake lol
> 
> **(6:14pm) Akira:** ill pay u back (ﾐዕᆽዕﾐ)
> 
> **(6:16pm) Akira:** lmaooo haru said she’ll pay for it and gave me 6000 yen to give u
> 
> **(6:16pm) Akira:** 6000 yen for a store bought cake
> 
> **(6:25pm) Akira:** r u out studying somewhere????
> 
> **(6:29pm) Akira:** we’re being quiet u can study in ur room and say gbye to ann /ᐠ ᵕ̩̩̥ ‸ᵕ̩̩̥ ᐟ\
> 
> **(6:36pm) Akira:** wtf shiho said ur working
> 
> **(6:37pm) Akira:** haru said makoto honestly 4got u asked for the day off 
> 
> **(6:37pm) Akira:** she said she’s sry
> 
> **(6:41pm) Akira:** haru’s been worried abt her lately :(
> 
> **(7:15pm) Akira:** do u want me to fake an injury
> 
> **(7:18pm) Akira:** oh nooo i broke my leg and i need my wife goro who understands how insurance works lmao
> 
> **(8:44pm) Akira:** gorooooooo
> 
> **(10:20pm) Akira:** if i actually break my leg will u answer
> 
> **(10:32pm) Akira:** ( =ノェヽ=)

Goro turned off his phone and placed it on his bedside table, failing to slow his rapid heart rate as he tucked himself under his blanket and into his pile of pillows to finally sleep off the long day he’s had. The last thought his mind conjured before sleep consumed his consciousness was that he wished Akira would read his chemistry textbook to him with his soft voice until Goro fell asleep.

* * *

Goro woke up in the morning to the heavy feeling of Morgana asleep on his abdomen and to the annoying blaring sound of an alarm. Not his alarm, but _Akira’s_ alarm.

The noise started about an hour before Goro had planned to wake up, loud enough to make Goro sit up with a huff knowing that Akira had a tendency to set _constant_ alarms to prevent himself from sleeping through them. 

He gave a few pets to the cat that was anchoring him like a living weighted blanket before waking the sleeping creature, admiring Morgana’s cute little stretches as Goro rolled off his bed and the cat curled back into a ball on his pillow. 

Goro crossed the hall to Akira’s bedroom, not even bothering to knock on the door if even the blaring of his alarm hadn’t woken him. He turned the doorknob to enter the room, the familiar sight of Mona’s replicated face all over his room watching Goro’s movements with their blue cat eyes. The soulless eyes of the Morgana funko pop on Akira’s desk were particularly unnerving. 

Goro walked further into the room to see the splayed limbs of the boy sleeping peacefully on the bed, Mona pillows surrounding him as he lightly snored. Goro smiled despite himself at the sight of Akira clumsily spread out over his mattress, and he couldn’t help but think that Akira looked so cute as he drooled on his pillow, wanting nothing more than to crawl into the soft bed with him instead of attending his classes and immediate shift he had afterwards.

The alarm on Akira’s phone started blaring again, bringing Goro back to reality as he shook his head at the irritating sound and made his way towards the sleeping frame on the mattress.

He grabbed Akira’s phone off his bed to make the blaring noises stop. It was one of the default alarm sounds that Akira had circled back to after going through many different sounds in the past, all failed attempts to stop sleeping through his alarms. Goro remembers Akira’s favorite alarm sound that he had for _months_ was Nyan Cat, wincing at the memories of hearing the song play on loop during late morning hours that Akira would sleep through.

Once the alarm had been silenced, Goro placed his hands on Akira’s shoulders, shaking him lightly as he smiled at the sight of his messy dark hair fanning on his pillow, nearly cooing as he spoke in a soft voice. 

“Akira...”

At the sound of his name, Akira inhaled sharply as he jolted awake, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes before finally focusing on Goro hovering next to his bed. Usually it took longer to get Akira to wake up, but Goro figured he must have meant to wake up even earlier, judging by Akira’s eyes widening beneath his messy bed hair covering his forehead. 

“Goro?” he mumbled sleepily as he blinked his eyes awake.

“Akira,” Goro repeated his name quietly, smiling warmly at the tired boy in front of him. 

Akira seemed to fully wake up as he grabbed his glasses and his phone to check the time, clearing his throat and looking back up to make eye contact with Goro again before he began to slide out of bed.

“You can go do your stuff while I do mine,” Akira pointed his finger between the direction of the bathroom and the kitchen as he spoke, Goro replying with a nod before turning back towards his bedroom to grab his phone before his own alarm went off and heading to the bathroom to shower. 

Goro emerged from his morning preparations dressed in clothes too nice for early college classes, his nose buried in his chemistry textbook as he entered the kitchen. He was planning to leave for campus as soon as possible in order to avoid any anxiety over possibly late trains or losing track of time in his studying, but the smell of coffee was luring him to stay in the kitchen for just a while longer.

He sat on a stool at the island counter, looking up from his textbook to watch Akira pour coffee for each of them before sliding a Mona mug and a matching Mona plate in front of Goro. He stared at the omelette and rice on the cat-shaped plate, a ghost of a smile forming on his face as Akira sat in the stool next to him with his own plate. Goro briefly glanced over to the boy sitting next to him, offering Akira a full smile before flicking his eyes back down to his textbook as the two of them ate in silence.

Goro rose from his seat when he was finished, setting his plate by the sink before moving to the couch to slip on his shoes. He made sure he had everything he needed in his bag and stood from the couch when it seemed like he was ready to leave, even if the sudden heaviness in the air made the idea of leaving feel strange.

He slung his bag over his shoulder as he stood up again, his keys in hand as he made his way toward the door. He met Akira’s gaze, and the younger boy started quickly striding toward him to catch up with Goro before he could reach for the doorknob. Akira’s hand wrapped around his wrist with a soft touch, staring into Goro’s eyes thoughtfully until he glanced down at the keys in Goro’s hand and let out a shaky exhale. 

“I got you something.” 

Goro’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, tilting his head to the side as he waited for Akira to further explain.

Akira used the hand that wasn’t on Goro’s wrist to fish something small out of the pocket of his pajama pants before lifting the brunette’s empty hand to place the object against his palm, a dopey grin on his face as he watched Goro examine the object. “Consider it a good luck charm.”

Goro stared at the black and white object in his hand, familiar blue eyes staring back at him. 

“A Morgana keychain?” he questioned as he squinted at the charm, no less confused than before.

“Yeah,” Akira angled his head down as he let his eyelids softly flutter shut, putting on a bashful smile that made the brunette’s heart speed up. “He’s wishing you luck.”

Akira’s face was an adorable shade of pink as he blushed. Goro felt his own face heating, flicking his eyes away from the sight and back to the cat-shaped keychain in his palm. “I have more keychains than keys at this point.”

“You like them,” Akira answered with an all-knowing look. 

Goro frowned at the messy haired boy in front of him, shifting his weight onto his back foot and huffing. “I like them because you give them to me.”

“I give them to you because you like them,” Akira sang back teasingly, grinning at Goro’s sigh of defeat.

“Fine,” Goro rolled his eyes. Knowing how stubborn Akira was, the sooner he admitted it, the sooner he could leave. “I like them. But I know what this means,” he held the Morgana keychain between his index finger and thumb, dangling the charm in front of Akira’s face.

Akira pinched his brows, barely visible beneath his hair covering his forehead. “What does what mean?”

“Once I accept one piece of Mona merch,” Goro started his lecture he prepared for this very moment, “you’ll take that as permission to turn my room into a Mona shrine like the rest of the apartment.” 

Akira just rolled his eyes and ignored Goro’s _completely rational_ concerns. “Goro, you’re overthinking. I said just consider it a good luck charm.”

Goro scowled into the lenses of Akira’s glasses before he took a deep breath and decided it wasn’t worth wasting study time to argue with him over this. 

“Whatever,” he muttered, attaching the cat charm to the metal loop of his keychain disdainfully to show his irritation. “But my room stays Mona-free.”

“He’s in there, like, all the time,” Akira laughed, his expression satisfied from Goro’s acceptance.

The older boy groaned, stepping away from Akira’s touch that still burned his wrist as he reached for the doorknob to depart for campus. He shot a final pointed glare at his roommate as he pushed the door open and stepped out of the apartment. 

“You know what I mean, Akira.”

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

Goro aced his exam. Of course he did, he shouldn’t have even doubted himself for a second, but sometimes his anxiety can get the better of him before tests. 

Either way, he felt proud of himself as he exited the train at the Shinjuku station and made his way to Frostbucks for his afternoon shift. He wished it could just be the weekend already so he could go home and not have to deal with the rest of this exhausting week, but at least he could rant to Hifumi and Shiho before having to put on his customer service attitude.

“How’d it go?” Shiho called from where she and Hifumi were eating cheap sushi at one of the tables, long finished with their early shift but still wearing their green aprons as they ate their lunch.

Goro made his way to where the two girls were sitting, placing his bag on the table to fish out his own apron as he shrugged. “Aced.”

Hifumi set down her iced americano, her long bangs falling over her eyes as she gave him a gratified smile. “As expected.”

“I was worried that Niijima’s bad scheduling might have gotten to you in the end,” Shiho snickered as Goro pulled out a third chair to join the girls at the table. 

“All it did was make me tired,” he took the cold brew Shiho slid in his direction, not nearly as good as Akira’s coffee, but he still needed another caffeine boost in order to handle customers without biting their heads off.

“Niijima has set herself up for failure this semester,” Hifumi muttered, setting down her chopsticks before further explaining. “She implied I’m not as smart as she is because I planned my class schedule to graduate in five total years instead of the typical four, but now she’s drowning in stress from taking more classes than she usually would in order to finish in time.” 

“Sounds like her,” Shiho clicked her teeth. “I can’t help but worry for her, though. I wish more people would understand that it’s perfectly fine to not rush themselves and put their wellbeing before education.”

“There’s a reason you’re the one studying to become a teacher and I’m not,” Hifumi laughed, pausing to take a sip of her drink. “I really can’t bring myself to care about her wellbeing at all.” 

Goro snorted at her bluntness, he couldn’t help but think that if the younger Niijima sister didn’t try to force herself to work beyond her limits, then maybe she wouldn’t be so uptight all the time. “So she’s taking her stress out on us?”

“Fucking hell,” Shiho groaned, her tone hostile in a way that she only let herself be around her two best friends at the table and occasionally her girlfriend. “I can’t deal with the repercussions of _her_ finding out the hard way that she’s not as perfect at everything as she thinks she is. Ann is gone for three weeks and Niijima can’t stop changing the schedule like it’s a hobby. Why can’t she just take the stick out of her ass?”

Goro gave an amused laugh at the amount of venom in Shiho’s usually soft and patient voice. “I can’t wait to hear the things you’ll say about your students’ parents.”

“Shut up,” she retorted as Hifumi stifled a giggle at the exchange. “You’re usually, like, ten times as bitter as I am on a base level.”

Hifumi fully laughed at that after taking a bite of her food. “Shiho, have you noticed he’s in a decent mood today?” 

The girl in question examined Goro for a minute, her face blank as she considered his behavior until recognition washed over her features. 

“Ohhh…” she drawled, her lips slowly curling into a devilish smile before darting her eyes back at Hifumi for the two girls to share a knowing laugh.

“What?” he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest and glowering at Shiho to try to intimidate her.

But of course, this was one of Goro’s best friends who was far beyond the point of intimidation after years of working beside him. 

“Akira didn’t come with us to take Ann to the airport last night…” Shiho trailed off in implication with a frustrating glint in her eye, and Goro just sharpened his glare as the future teacher became increasingly more smug by the second. 

“Maybe he was just tired.”

“You always complain to us that he’s a night owl,” Hifumi pointed out, matching Shiho’s level of smugness as she rested her cheek on her palm.

“The two of us don’t know Akira as well as you do,” Shiho began, her expression becoming more serious at Goro’s stubbornness, “but even we know he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to send Ann off in Okumura’s luxury limo with all of his best friends _just_ because he was tired.”

 _”Almost_ all of his best friends,” Hifumi corrected, snickering as she lifted the straw of her cold drink to her lips.

“Exactly, ‘Fumi,” Shiho replied, a sly grin widening across her face that made the hairs on the back of Goro’s neck stand up. “Goro didn’t go because he had an exam in the morning.”

Goro glared coldly as Shiho set her elbows on the table to rest her chin on her intertwined fingers.

“What are you getting at?” he squinted suspiciously at the girl who was starting to pick up a lot of expressions from her model girlfriend.

“Ann just so happened to mention to me that Akira has your exam schedule on his phone,” Shiho laughed. Well think of the devil and she shall be mentioned by her significant other.

Goro opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by Shiho sighing lovingly as she thought of Ann, closing her eyes as though recalling a memory. “She even thought it was so romantic that she did the same thing for me.”

Goro’s eyes widened instantaneously at the comment. 

“I-its not–!” he sputtered as he ran a hand through his hair and took a moment to gather his thoughts. He exhaled deeply before gesturing between his two friends sitting across from him. “You two have each other’s schedules. And you’re clearly not interested in each other.”

“True,” Hifumi chimed after popping her last piece of sushi in her mouth, “but we don’t wake up at 5 A.M. to make each other breakfast every time one of us has a test. Or at all. Ever.”

“And it’s just a shared calendar in our apartment,” Shiho added before Goro could deny Akira making him breakfast that morning, his glare shifting from one girl to the next as they took turns berating him. “Also I don’t spend my entire paycheck on Hifumi when she finishes her midterms.” 

Goro felt his face heating, his cheeks likely beet red as he wondered if every time Ann went over to their apartment she listed all of his daily activities to them one by one. He wished for a brief moment that he had never brought the terrifying duo that was Ann and Shiho upon himself by introducing them.

“I only spend my paycheck on Ann,” Shiho tilted her head to the side, eyes distant as she got lost in thought. “Like I will when she gets home in three weeks.”

Goro took a few shaky breaths as he gawked at the lovestruck girl in front of him, his glare softening but only turning into more of a bewildered stare. 

“Again, Shiho, I’m not sure what you’re implying,” he voiced warily, although he was nearly certain what his friends were trying to say at this point, not entirely fond of their implications.

“Goro,” Hifumi’s eyes were deadly serious as she gave him a pointed look. “You’re in a good mood because of Akira. Aren’t you?”

Although asked like a question, Goro knew she already had the answer she was looking for. Her assumption was correct, but he could barely admit to himself that his best friend made him feel fluttery and light inside, let alone voice something so embarrassing aloud to someone else. His good mood was starting to fade, anyway, as he checked his time and saw that their lunch would have to come to a close.

“My shift starts soon,” he grumbled before tucking his phone back in his pocket and finishing the rest of his coffee.

Goro stood from the table and made his way to the back room of the cafe without another word, walking past where Chie and Yosuke were arguing behind the bar and huffing loud enough for the duo to hear his displeasure of their constant immature bickering. When he entered the break room to drop off his things, he was actually relieved to see Niijima tying on her apron to work alongside him, a more commanding force that could easily make their arguing coworkers behave.

As he was clocking in, Goro felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and figured he should check his texts before leaving his phone in the break room for the next few hours.

**HOME-ies**

> **(5:47am) Ann:** u guys better txt daily updates! i dnt wnna miss anything important!!! (ʃƪ˘³˘)♥
> 
> **(1:23pm) Akira:** mona says good morning :3  
>  **(1:23pm) Akira:** **[image]**

Goro stared at the picture of Morgana sleeping on one of Akira’s cat-shaped pillows, smiling softly at the sight of the cat resting on a pillow meant to resemble him, but his smile faded somewhat as more texts from his roommates started to roll in.

> **(1:24pm) Ryuji:** lol
> 
> **(1:24pm) Ryuji:** can whoever goes shopping next get more sriracha 
> 
> **(1:24pm) Ann:** AWEEE!!!
> 
> **(1:24pm) Ann:** goro how was the test??
> 
> **(1:24pm) Goro:** Perfect score as expected, thank you, Ann.
> 
> **(1:25pm) Goro:** And I can go shopping after work, Ryuji.
> 
> **(1:25pm) Ann:** proud of u! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡
> 
> **(1:25pm) Ryuji:** thanks bro cant eat insta ramen w/o it
> 
> **(1:25pm) Akira:** the mona keychain worked :o
> 
> **(1:26pm) Goro:** *My studying worked
> 
> **(1:26pm) Akira:** how can u prove it wasnt the mona keychain 
> 
> **(1:27pm) Ryuji:** oh gg on the test man
> 
> **(1:27pm) Ryuji:** @akira wanna play dark souls
> 
> **(1:27pm) Akira:** which?
> 
> **(1:27pm) Ryuji:** 3 dude pw match

At that, Goro turned his phone on do not disturb and slid it into his bag before walking into the restaurant to start his shift, figuring that whatever Ann was doing at the moment, she likely didn’t care about where the text conversation was headed either.

Shiho and Hifumi gathered their things after finally taking off their work aprons, Shiho declaring to Goro that it’s mandatory he join them to get wine drunk at their apartment on Saturday night as they sauntered past the bar before saying their goodbyes.

* * *

By the time Goro had finished his shift and completed his grocery shopping at the closest convenience store, it was already nearing 7 P.M. in Shinjuku, and the sun was close to being fully set. The sky was foggy, the colors of the sunset being dulled by clouds coating the sky, and a gentle breeze was fanning Goro’s light brown hair as he took in the sights of the red-light district. 

He typically wasn’t here this late, usually working mornings except for his rare closing shifts that would leave him too worn out to be able to appreciate Shinjuku’s colorful lights. Not to mention that Goro was aware of the nighttime crowd this place could attract, usually beelining straight for the subway on nights with late shifts to avoid extra annoyances on top of the exhaustion. He would often even encounter the same weirdos still out and about when he arrived at Frostbucks to open in the early dawn hours.

But on this tepid, early-autumn evening, Goro didn’t feel himself burdened with the exhaustion that usually followed his shifts, so he decided to let himself wander around this part of the city for a while longer.

And maybe Hifumi was right that Goro was in a good mood. He aced his exam, he was done with work for the day, and the evening weather had generated a breeze at just the right temperature, Goro had valid reasons to be in a good mood right now he would say.

He strolled along the streets in the general direction of the Shinjuku train station, his two paper grocery bags in hand as he thought about his schedule for the rest of the week. Tomorrow he would be back to working his usual opening shift with the girls before a long day of classes, but thankfully he would only have to worry about work on Friday and Saturday with a completely free day on Sunday. He had two, mostly-finished essays due the following week for both his critical thinking class and ethics class, but he wouldn’t have to worry about another exam for a while, at least.

Goro ran a hand through his soft hair that was starting to become somewhat tangled by the blowing wind, lost in thought as he wandered through the red-light district of Shinjuku. A train of thought about which instant meal he bought at the convenience store he should have for dinner quickly turned into concern that he should have texted Akira to ask how much cat food Mona had before he went shopping. He was in the middle of correcting his own brain that Akira would never let Mona get low on food and only buys the highest quality food for the spoiled cat that Akira treated like royalty, he wouldn’t want convenience store cat food _anyway,_ when he heard the quiet voice of a woman interrupt his pondering.

“You seem troubled,” said a blonde figure, sitting at a low table in a part of the district that Goro could only describe as filthy, though the woman herself appeared to be sane enough. She definitely wasn’t the most suspicious person Goro had seen in this area after all these years of working nearby. 

“Your conflict stems from many sources,” the woman continued speaking with her soft voice, lavender irises making contact with Goro when he stopped in his path to look at who was addressing him. “Would you care for some advice? It could make a world of difference, you know.”

Goro analyzed the plain booth where she sat. There were no decorations or signs to indicate what the woman was doing loitering in a tucked away corner of the street at night, but Goro could assume from her campy outfit, the few items on her table, and the context clues of her introduction that she must be someone who believes in spiritual pseudoscience. Ann knows the extent of his displeasure with such shams from the amount of times she’s heard him rant after she insists he listen to his horoscope.

He squinted his eyes at the hopeful woman, considering just continuing on his walk to the station and pretending he didn’t hear her voice (that was nearly silent _anyway_ ), until she cleared her throat and was speaking louder to him. “First reading is free~”

Goro scoffed at the lilt in her tone trying to tempt him as if he were some gullible sheep who would give in so easily.

“It is not price that’s the issue,” he gritted his teeth at the unfazed and naive purple-eyed woman. “I wouldn’t waste my _time_ on something as nonsensical as whatever _”readings”_ you do.”

He released a sharp exhale as if the words he spat had inconvenienced him enough to drain his energy. “And you should pick a spot more noticeable if you actually want to scam people.”

The woman was now less shy than when she first spoke, blinking a few times as she peered at the brunette and investigated him like she hadn’t even registered Goro’s words. She was silent for a moment, face blank and unreadable until she released a dramatic sigh. 

“Alright. I apologize,” she slumped in her seat, the smile on her face lowering as she shrank in on herself. “I’ll let you be on your way.”

Goro stood frozen for a couple seconds, his confusion likely present on his face due to expecting the blonde to attempt to sway him. He huffed as he pulled out a chair to begrudgingly sit across from the odd woman. 

“More advice,” he glowered at the wide-eyed stranger clad in a ridiculous headband, his voice even more harsh than before, “if you want business you actually have to _try_ to get customers.”

The woman leaned forward in her chair, expression fully satisfied as though Goro sitting across from her was a victory in itself. 

“The cards dislike skeptics,” she explained, one of her polished hands spreading a deck of cards across the table as she eyed Goro with an unwavering focus. “And while I appreciate the advice, I do just fine for myself business-wise. You can assume that a free first reading means I’m confident enough in my skills that my clients will return.”

While Goro figured she likely did in fact have a decent amount of experience doing this if she was able to remain unfazed by his skepticism, it that just made him believe even more than she was a professional con artist. 

“ _Obviously_ the cards don’t work on skeptics,” he fumed impatiently. “It’s a placebo effect scam, it only works on people brainless enough to fall for it.”

The target of his seething just laughed at his glare, his refusal to participate boosting her confidence with each outburst. She used one hand to effortlessly gather the spread cards on the table back into a neat pile as she twisted her devious smile back into something feigning innocence. 

“I believe they just find my advice to be fulfilling,” she hummed. “Why don’t I repay you for the business advice you’ve offered me?”

“What do you even claim you are? A psychic?” Goro raised a suspicious eyebrow as he lectured the blonde. “What’s your business model? Your setup is pathetic.”

The lady beamed in response, and Goro was really starting to wonder if she was less sane than he originally thought she was. “It’s not about _me._ It’s about the cards!”

Goro rolled his eyes at that and tried to remember why he even sat down here in the first place before the blonde was speaking again. “Just allow me to demonstrate. What’s the worst that could happen? You’ve already wasted enough of your time sitting here slandering me.”

Goro considered outright refusing, but a small part of him really wanted to know what bizarre advice this stranger could give him from reading cards of all things. Also, she was right that he had already wasted his time, he might as well get an entertaining story to relay to his friends. 

“Fine.”

She clasped her hands together in excitement as she gushed. “Wonderful! Tell me your name.”

“The cards can’t tell you?” he scoffed mockingly, still not very eager to give an obvious scammer too much information.

“I just want this to be more personal,” the blonde chided, “I’m sure if I hadn’t asked, you would have criticized me for such poor customer service. I’m Chihaya.”

Goro did agree with her that making her clients feel comfortable was likely a better way to go about business in order to scam them afterwards, and although he wasn’t looking to get scammed himself, he doubted she could do much to scam him with his name alone. 

“Akechi,” he muttered beneath his breath.

“Akechi-kun,” Chihaya echoed happily, “will you shuffle these while I ask you a few questions?” The mysterious blonde handed him a pile of the cards she had been speaking so highly of, and Goro took them with a deep sigh.

“That in itself was a question,” he remarked just to be bothersome as he began to rearrange the cards in their deck, not enough of them to actually shuffle the cards.

“What do you do for work?” Chihaya inquired, ignoring his comment as Goro continued shuffling the cards in his hands, waiting patiently for her questioning to be over and for her to tell him to stop.

“Frostbucks,” he answered curtly, “down the block.”

“I’ve never seen you around,” the so-called fortune teller seemed almost bewildered by that, like she wasn’t the one hidden away in an alley, and as if she expected to somehow know every person who frequented this part of the city. Chihaya tilted her chin back, her eyes shining like crystals as she read him with her gaze.

“You’re in school,” she pointed out, intrigue heavy in her voice. “What are you studying?”

Goro refused to be impressed by her correct assumption, it was easy to guess his age by looking at him, and she had a decent chance of being right considering how many people his age attended university. 

“Philosophy,” he answered cautiously, eying her skeptically like he was waiting for her to reveal that she knew his address and credit card number this whole time.

“Undergrad?” she asked, to which he simply nodded. “How close are you to graduating?” Chihaya continued, tapping the pads of her fingers together as she watched him.

Goro resisted the urge to sigh at the question, not very fond of thinking about his future after college. He hoped his fretfulness didn’t show on his face as he answered. “A year or two.”

“And do you plan to attend grad school?” 

Goro _really_ wished she would just ask questions on literally any other topic. “Maybe.”

“Hm.”

He figured that Chihaya must have taken that as Goro saying that he’s not really sure what he wants to do career-wise at all, which was the truth. He chose philosophy as his major simply because he enjoyed the subject. Hifumi had informed him that many philosophy majors went to law school after their undergrad, and Shiho had mentioned a few times that if he was ever interested in teaching philosophy she could help him. Goro even had a few more options laid out for him with his future degree, including psychology and journalism, but while he would likely find enjoyment in any of these things, he couldn’t help but feel an intense storm of self doubt stirring inside him every time he thought about the future. 

“You’re not dating anybody,” the blonde’s curious voice snapped him out of his thoughts, eyeing him as though she was analyzing his entire life story with one look. Chihaya’s intrigued gaze softened as she chuckled at the boy holding the cards. “Ah, but there is someone special~”

Goro takes it back, he’d much rather be questioned about potential career paths than this. He glared at the so-called fortune teller, seeing red obscure his vision as he tried to force her to understand through his cruel stare that this was dangerous territory for her. 

“There. Is. _Not._ ”

“Hm,” Chihaya repeated with a straight face. “Just one more question.”

He sneered at the blonde across from him but waited for her to ask her question.

“Do you consider yourself to be a stubborn person?” she inquired with a tilt of her head, her lavender eyes flashing as though there actually was some type of magic happening within her crystalline irises as she analyzed him. Not that such a thing could ever be possible. 

“Many people would say that I am,” he curtly answered.

Chihaya furrowed her eyebrows, frowning as she squinted at him. “But do you consider yourself to be?”

Goro pondered the question for a moment before eventually deciding. “I am perfectly reasonable.”

Chihaya huffed out a short breathy laugh as she held out a manicured hand to take the shuffled cards back from him. Without wasting any time, she quickly split the deck and laid out seven cards face-up in a half-diamond shape onto the table, stroking her chin in thought as she examined the pattern of the cards.

“All my assumptions were correct,” the blonde gloated with a pleased quirk to her lips, not once looking up from the displayed cards to see Goro becoming more confused as she carried out her process. 

“You fear lack of direction,” Chihaya lowered her hand to move the chariot card in a 180 degree turn. “And your stubbornness stems from your self-doubt, your past of loneliness, and your resistance to change,” Chihaya paused, humming absentmindedly as she turned the judgement, hermit, and fortune card in the same way.

She finally looked up at him, and Goro didn’t give her the satisfaction of being impressed by her deductions, trying his best to appear bored despite being, admittedly, somewhat interested. 

“It’s not difficult to assume things that are true for most people on the planet,” he lectured to the woman across from him who continued to grin happily. “You have the same skill level as the Instagram accounts my roommate gets her horoscopes from.”

“You’re not completely hopeless,” Chihaya mused as she eyed the cards again, ignoring his insults that didn’t seem to be causing her dismay in the slightest. “You have the influence of the star,” she pointed to said card without turning it, “you have some sensible friends at least.”

Without letting Goro argue that his friends were anything but sensible, she flipped the sun card and continued explaining the significance. 

“In the near future you will be called to release your inner child,” the blonde paused briefly to giggle with amusement at the thought. “Although I doubt someone as resistant as you will accept the call without challenge. I would love to see how your cards change over these coming weeks, though.”

Goro scoffed at her confidence, wondering what type of delusion it takes to make a stranger think they know a person from a deck of cards. 

“There won’t be a next time,” he hissed, squinting his eyes at the feign innocence of the tarot reader.

His irritation just made her smile grow wider, almost wicked as she studied the last card she hadn’t spoken of. 

“Your final outcome,” Chihaya sang, grinning as she pointed to the lovers card and waited for his reaction.

Goro’s disgust was evident as he scowled even more, feeling his face heating both from rage and more embarrassment than he was willing to admit. He lowered his eyes to look at the card Chihaya still rested a manicured finger upon, releasing a shaky breath as he felt his heartbeat start to rapidly pick up without his permission.

God, as if this fortune teller could possibly have any _actual_ psychic abilities. She was clearing just a scammer, so why did he want to get on a group call with Ann and the girls and squeal about his crush like a schoolgirl? 

Not like there was a crush or anything…

“So this is what your scam leads to?” he tried to laugh in a way that sounded insulting to distract from the blush forming on his cheeks. “You just choose which one sounds the most dramatic and that’s what you pick as the final outcome?”

“It’s based on the positions of the cards,” she rested her chin in the palm of her hands as she smirked knowingly at him. “I knew you would act stubborn about this outcome, but it could mean many things, you know.” 

He groaned. “Of course it could. It’s supposed to be vague enough that it could apply to any person’s life. That’s the entire scam.”

“The exact meaning of the cards varies from person to person, yes,” Chihaya countered with an air of sureness, “but it’s my advice that keeps my regulars coming back for more.” Despite her confidence, she had a soft, warm smile on her face that was still trying to lure him into her obvious con. 

Goro just gawked at her with disbelief. If he wanted advice he wouldn't listen to he would just go to his therapist.

“Since I cannot clearly see the future,” Chihaya continued examining the card before Goro could voice his thoughts, “I need to consider all possible meanings when cards fall into future spots. At its most vague, lovers represents making clear choices for oneself by deciding what it is they truly want in life. The category of their desires, again, varies with each person. Whether it’s work or _love,”_ her gemstone eyes flicked up to analyze his own with an intensity that gave Goro goosebumps, “you need to be decisive, Akechi-kun.” 

He snapped out his daze at the sound of his name, feeling pathetic for nearly falling for her scam as he absorbed what she said. There was something about Chihaya’s lavender eyes that gave an illusion of something that he would call magic if Goro were naive enough.

“This is ridiculous,” he groaned as he internally berated himself for wasting his time on this. “That’s seriously your advice? Be decisive?”

“Your subconscious mind knows what it is you want,” the blonde corrected him as she gathered the cards back into their deck. “When I asked you all those questions, your mind was very clear in telling the cards what your desires are.”

Goro scoffed at her, feeling sorry for the fools who believe this. “My mind told you through the cards?”

Chihaya beamed, nodding her head with excitement as she failed to notice his irritation. 

“Now you’re starting to get it!”

At that, Goro decided that he’s had enough. He’s wasted too much time humoring this lunatic when he could have been home in comfortable clothes and heating up one of the instant meals he picked up at the convenience store. So Goro stood from the chair while flinging his book bag over his shoulder, about to finally make his escape when he heard Chihaya’s voice speak again.

“You don’t want more advice?”

Goro stared at her pleading expression, picking up his grocery bags and nearly laughing at the fact that she really thought he could be swayed. He was already stepping away from the table when he answered, not holding back a laugh that did manage to escape his lips. “Absolutely not.”

* * *

When Goro arrived in Shibuya, his feet carried him straight home with his keys in hand. His gaze kept meeting the watchful cat eyes of the Mona keychain staring back, something that felt mocking despite its extreme cuteness. 

He slid the cat keychain to the side when he arrived at the apartment, the all-knowing blue eyes out of sight as he unlocked the door with his grocery bags hanging on his wrists. The scent of spices filled the apartment, and Goro realized how hungry he was as he slipped off his uncomfortable shoes and walked to the empty kitchen to set the paper bags on the counter. 

He heard the sound of socked feet padding quickly across the floor, turning around to see Akira breathing heavily as he sprinted into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Akira greeted, face flushed as he stood across the island counter from Goro and tried to catch his breath. “Right when I step out for a second you get here,” the younger boy chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck before moving to stir the pot on the stove. “The curry is almost ready. Not too spicy, don’t worry.”

Goro smiled thankfully as Akira focused on the pot, he really was quite hungry after his busy day, and he was glad to have real food to end the day with. 

“Thank you for this, Akira,” Goro voiced fondly as he watched Akira’s eyes light up.

His roommate's fluffy hair was suddenly within the bounds of Goro’s personal space, bringing a spoonful of curry with him while his dark eyes glued themselves to Goro’s in an intense stare behind his lenses. 

“Try it,” Akira insisted breathily while he lifted the spoon in front of the brunette’s lips.

Goro darted his eyes to the spoon for a split second before quickly meeting Akira’s gaze once again, exhaling shakily before moving his head closer to the utensil. Akira moved his hand the rest of the distance to meet him halfway, neither breaking eye contact as Goro wrapped his lips around the spoon to taste the curry, a pleased smile appearing on Akira's face at the sight.

“Exactly how you like it,” Akira purred as he pulled the spoon away, replacing the utensil with himself as he got even closer to Goro’s face with a cocky smile on display.

Goro felt his heart hammering against his chest at the intimacy of the entire scene. He tried to focus on his own breathing instead of Akira’s deep-set eyes so close to him, or Akira’s disheveled hair resting on his forehead that made him look incredibly endearing, or Akira’s blush that accentuated the occasional freckles that dusted his soft skin as a rosy pink color began to spread across Akira’s prominent bone-structure… 

Goro really needs to get out of this situation before he does something stupid.

“R-Ryuji will be glad I bought sriracha, then,” Goro stammered, trying to play off how flustered he was getting with an uncomfortably fake laugh. He gestured to the bags on the counter as he quickly stumbled away from Akira once he was able to make his legs work again. 

“I’ll go tell him that dinner’s ready!” Goro all but croaked as he pointed in the direction of where Ryuji’s room was before clumsily dashing away from the kitchen as quickly as possible, leaving Akira looking nearly paralyzed as Goro left to knock rapidly on his roommate’s door.

Ryuji opened the door to a flustered Goro, raising an eyebrow at the brunette looking so rattled, but ultimately deciding to not comment on it.

“Hey dude,” Ryuji lowered his headphones to rest around his neck as he greeted the older boy, causing Goro’s eyes to widen even more as he wondered if he interrupted Ryuji’s stream.

“Are you live?” Goro stage-whispered so only the blond could hear him. Akira and Ryuji had told him countless times that he had no reason to talk so quietly when they were streaming because they could always just have ads run when they stepped away, but the even the slimmest chance of strangers overhearing him was something that Goro dreaded more than anything, so he kept his voice quiet as he stared at Ryuji with slight panic.

“Nah,” Ryuji answered with a shrug. “Just PUBG with Futaba. What’s up?”

Goro instantly felt relieved, but there was still a level of awkwardness consuming him that he couldn’t exactly place. 

He shifted his weight before clearing his throat. “Akira made dinner.”

“Oh, nice.”

Goro breathed deeply as he turned on his heel to walk back to the kitchen with his roommate in tow. Ryuji stopped in his tracks when he noticed Akira glaring coldly at him, confusion washing over the blond’s features at the sight of his friend not trying to hide his sudden resentment directed toward him.

There was an odd energy in the room, different from the earlier awkwardness that emerged after Goro had broken his and Akira’s proximity. Akira was currently glowering at Ryuji with an unwavering determination, like he was trying to make the blond evaporate from the kitchen with his eyes. Ryuji didn’t evaporate, however. He stared back at Akira expressionlessly, as though he knew exactly what was making Akira act in such a manner and wasn’t having any of it. 

“Did you not expect me to eat, man?” Ryuji raised an incredulous eyebrow at the messy-haired boy, voicing his exasperation as he reached for a plate from the cupboard. “I’ll take this to my room in, like, two seconds. Chill.”

Akira’s glare didn’t fade as Ryuji began shoveling his dinner onto his plate, his eyes burning holes into the side of the blond’s head. Ryuji turned his head to face the stare directed at his temple and frowned in response, all energy draining from his typically lively demeanor. 

“Dude,” Ryuji addressed seriously, speaking with irritation as though he was fed up with Akira to the point of exhaustion. The two boys stared at each other in a moment of silent conversation, something that reminded Goro of two cats aggressively angling their ears at each other until Ryuji eventually huffed out a breath in defeat. 

“God, I wish Ann was here to deal with this,” he mumbled as he grabbed chopsticks and a napkin from Akira’s set of Mona-themed napkins in the drawer. Ryuji reached into one of the convenience store bags left on the island counter to take the entire bottle of sriracha with him as he escaped toward the direction of his room. Before turning away completely, the blond held up the plate of food in one hand and the bottle in the other, exclaiming a _’thanks’_ at the two boys left in the kitchen before spinning in place and muttering under his breath as he walked the rest of the way to his bedroom. 

Goro glanced away from where the blond disappeared down the hallway and instead focused on Akira, who was still standing near the stove looking irritated from Ryuji’s interruption. 

_Is_ that what he was annoyed about?

Being interrupted?

Goro took a deep breath as he watched the other boy blankly stare at the wall. He waited a few more seconds to see if Akira would happen to speak first to make up an excuse for acting so strangely, but, of course, his roommate stayed quiet. 

“So…” Goro broke the silence, unsure about what to say or where to go from here. Akira quickly redirected his attention away from the framed portrait of Morgana on the wall to the brunette, looking less irritated but still raveled. 

Akira’s gaze was fixed on Goro for a while, the latter still somewhat perplexed, but he didn’t speak as Akira studied him. 

“Sit,” Akira instructed, his voice somewhat distant but still strong in its command. Goro obeyed by pulling out a chair to sit at the dining room table without a word.

He watched Akira move around the kitchen as he prepared their plates, setting one on either side of the table before hurrying back to the kitchen to grab his prized teapot designed to look like Morgana as well as mugs for each of them.

Akira remained on his feet as he poured tea for the both of them, only sitting down once he had placed the Morgana-teapot safely away from the edge of the table. Goro noticed the rise and fall of his chest as he shut his eyes and took a deep, alleviating breath now that he had a chance to relax after preparing dinner.

When Akira opened his eyes again, there was a soft smile on his face as he looked at Goro, a refreshed glow lighting up the blending greys of his eyes. Goro didn’t want to _gawk_ at the precious sight of the smiling boy across from him, but he couldn’t get himself to look away from the other’s shining eyes that were currently fixed on Goro like he was something worth looking at.

“Hi,” Akira’s smile remained on his face as he spoke at almost a whisper, like if he talked too loudly they would both be forced out of the tranquility of the moment.

“Hi,” Goro quietly echoed as a faint smile naturally found its way onto his face.

Akira broke eye contact for a second to glance down at his plate and pick up his chopsticks before he looked back up at Goro again. He exhaled deeply as he relaxed even more, the two boys taking a moment to calm themselves from their hectic days with matching, easy smiles on their faces.

“Tell me about your day,” Akira urged him fondly as he began to eat his curry. 

Goro took a bite of his own food while he considered the occurrences of his boring day. “Nothing that interesting,” he prefaced. “We didn’t have lecture in chemistry because of the exam, so I had some time before ethics to do my humanities work,” Goro paused to take another bite of curry while Akira nodded along like he was genuinely engrossed in the unexciting anecdote.

He took a sip of the tea, a beverage Goro usually preferred with much more sugar than how Akira had prepared it, but he actually enjoyed how the bitter tea paired with the curry much more than he would with a sweet tea. 

“I was surprised how quickly she graded the exam,” Goro continued in reference to his chemistry professor. Akira had heard his past countless complaints about how frustrating it was that his professor would take _weeks_ to grade assignments, especially when it was pending exam grades that made Goro extra nervous. “She posted the results before I was even done with my next class.”

“I knew you would do great on it,” Akira beamed proudly as Goro felt his face heat up once again that night. He trailed his feather-light fingers across the table to momentarily rest a hand on Goro’s wrist as he looked at him intensely. “When do you not?”

Goro felt completely powerless for being so affected by such simple compliments, feeling his heart pounding in his chest even as Akira’s touch left his wrist. Akira just had such a captivating manner in which he spoke, in the way he did most things, really, that sometimes Goro couldn’t help but succumb to his charm.

“Then you had lunch with Shiho and Hifumi, right?” Akira’s questioning voice brought Goro back to reality by continuing their conversation. Their completely normal and platonic conversation. One that had zero romantic connotations in the slightest. 

“We did,” Goro answered. “We’re having a get together on Saturday too, I guess. Shiho’s bored without Ann here.”

Akira took a sip of tea, holding the small mug with both hands in a way that Goro’s mind involuntarily described as cute. “It’s been a while since you’ve had a girls’ night,” he grinned teasingly as he set the cup back down.

Goro’s eyes followed Akira’s hand as he picked up his chopsticks again, noting how nice his fingers looked as he performed the action. He tore his eyes away after swallowing a lump in his throat, meeting grey irises already looking at him in wait of a response.

“They have plenty of _’girls’ nights’_ without me,” Goro said with air quotes as he echoed Akira’s words. “I’ve just been so busy most nights that Ann fell out of habit of asking if I want to join her when she sneaks off to their place.” He sighed in frustration at the fact that school and work has caused him to endure unbearable withdrawals of wine, face masks, and a place to complain endlessly with his friends.

“What about Friday night?” Akira asked, glancing up hopefully as he pushed his food around on his plate. “Are you busy then?”

“Just an opening shift the next morning,” Goro shrugged as he took another bite of curry. “Why?”

“I wanna take you out to dinner,” Akira replied casually. At least he _was_ casual until uneasiness began to wash over his expression, and he rubbed the back of his neck like he always does when he’s nervous. “T-to celebrate.”

Goro didn’t react, only continuing to stare blankly at Akira with pinched brows. 

“To…?”

Oh, right. His exam. 

“I thought this was to celebrate?” Goro pointed his chopsticks at the plate of curry before him.

Akira waved his hand to brush off Goro’s _(completely valid)_ point. “I make curry most nights anyway. We should do something more special.”

“I have exams all the time you know,” Goro countered monotonously, squinting his eyes at his roommate.

Akira just scoffed at the brunette’s stubbornness. Goro could at least understand where his exasperation was coming from, considering this was Akira, who knew exactly how much Goro lived for attention. 

“I fail to see the issue with celebrating your successes,” Akira insisted, and Goro could tell by Akira’s hopeful eyes that he was mentally pleading he would just give in and accept.

“Fine,” Goro muttered his acceptance, ignoring the pleased smile that instantly appeared on Akira’s face to instead focus on his curry. “We’ll do something on Friday.”

It was silent for a moment as they ate, Akira still smiling over their upcoming plans before he cleared his throat to speak again.

“Was work okay?” Goro heard Akira politely ask, once again deterring them back to their original conversation. 

Goro made a displeased sound as he shrugged. He would never describe a shitty customer service job as anything more than tedious and draining. 

“The afternoon crowds are never as busy as in the morning,” he explained inattentively, still focusing on the plate of curry as he ate between thinking aloud, “but that also makes the whole shift go by slower.”

Akira hummed a response to encourage Goro to continue. The older boy felt himself getting lost in the conversation again, always finding it easy to talk about anything with Akira. Even something as simple as the ordinary events of his day could be soothing to discuss when it was with his best friend.

“After work I went to the nearest convenience store to get.. mostly instant meals,” Goro looked up from his plate to meet Akira’s gaze as he set his chopsticks down, taking a sip of tea to create a buildup for his next bombshell. 

“And then,” Goro cracked a smile in order to intrigue the boy across from him, watching as Akira paused right before bringing his chopsticks to meet his open mouth, “a crazy lady in an alley gave me a tarot reading.”

Akira’s eyes widened as a laugh escaped him, fully forgetting about his food as he set his chopsticks down. 

“She didn’t pull, like, death or anything, right?” Akira asked through laughs.

Goro couldn’t help but start laughing as well, mostly because Akira’s laughter was just that contagious.

“I wish,” he answered amusedly, “then I’d at least have an interesting story. I don’t even remember most of what she said. Except for, like,” he paused as he tilted his head to the side to do a mocking impression of the fortune teller, _”be less stubborn.”_

Akira huffed out another breathy laugh as he moved his hand to push his glasses up by the bridge, Goro’s eyes following the movement intensely. “It wouldn’t kill you to follow that advice,” he teased with a smile glued to his face.

“You’re one to talk,” Goro scoffed, only half-offended as he squinted his eyes at the mess of curly black hair.

Akira grinned at him like Goro’s quip was the highlight of his day, the sight making Goro take a second to steady his breathing. 

“Guilty,” he sang, looking up at Goro through his long lashes as he offered a playful smile.

Goro exhaled sharply, trying to force away a blush that was threatening to paint his skin at merely the sight of Akira. 

He flicked his eyes away from Akira and instead directed his attention to his roommate’s phone sitting face down on the table, the picture of Mona surrounded by cat stickers on Akira’s phone case suddenly becoming very interesting. 

After the two of them ate in silence for a couple minutes, Goro cleared his throat before addressing the younger boy again.

“What about your day?”

“Hm?” Akira jerked his head up suddenly, clearly startled by Goro’s voice as he had become quite invested in his curry. Goro laughed at Akira’s glasses crookedly sliding down his nose and the curry sauce messily sticking to the corner of his mouth, which he must have realized as soon as he heard Goro’s laugh because he quickly reached for a Mona napkin with wide eyes.

Okay, _fine._ Goro could admit that Akira was cute.

“My day?” Akira asked once he had composed himself, though the question didn’t need answering. “I fell asleep right after you left. And I texted you when I woke up,” he grinned proudly as though he was bragging about his sleeping capabilities, “then fucked around on stream for a while and made dinner after.” He shrugged and offered a sheepish smile.

“Did you play something?” Goro asked, his lips quirking up in amusement as he listened to Akira talk.

“Oh, yeah!” Akira perked up and nodded excitedly from his interest being gained. “I’ve been playing A Hat in Time for the past couple of weeks,” the raven haired boy squinted his eyes shut as a grin stretched across his face. “Someone even made a Mona mod.”

Goro’s expression remained neutral as he blinked at Akira.

“A.. what?”

“A Mona mod, so you can play as Morgana,” he replied before blissfully plopping some curry into his mouth. “Though the main character is cute enough on her own. She’s like.. a little alien kid trying to recollect her timepieces by world hopping.”

“So you play as Morgana instead of her?” Goro pinched his brows as he tried to picture it in his head.

“Yeah, it’s adorable,” Akira breathed out a happy sigh. 

Goro finished the last of his curry, and although he didn’t entirely understand the concept, he still put on a smile to match Akira’s. “That does indeed sound very cute.” 

Akira practically inhaled the last few bites of his dinner as well before reaching for Goro’s empty plate and taking the dishes to the kitchen. 

“That reminds me,” Akira announced when he came back to hover near the table. “I got you another thing. Be right back.”

“Wha–?” Goro began to question, but Akira was already rushing down the hallway toward his room before the older boy could finish his sputtering. 

Goro clicked his tongue as he waited for Akira to return with whatever he had for him. After not too long, the dark haired boy reemerged into the common area of the apartment with his hands behind his back, wearing a mischievous smile as he walked up to Goro. 

“For you,” he declared, extending his arms in front of him to present Goro with...

A stuffed cat orb. Complete with the trademark black fur and blue eyes.

This particular Mona orb, however, was designed to be wearing a white face mask over where its nose and mouth would be, with a minimalist kitty snout drawn over the mask.

It was… extremely cute.

“That’s terrifying,” Goro replied, unmoving as he stared at the soulless eyes of the cat plush Akira was still holding with outstretched arms. “Did you not hear what I said this morning?”

“How can you say no to this face,” Akira insisted, pouting as he brought the cat’s face closer to Goro’s own.

Goro sharpened his glare. “Quite easily.”

Akira slumped his shoulders exasperatedly, looking up at Goro with wide, pleading eyes. “Why not?” he whined in an attempt at getting the brunette to cave. 

“I already live amongst a million of these,” Goro explained curtley. “I don’t even know how you got custom Morgana soap dispensers.”

“You like them, you just don’t want to admit it,” Akira shot back, voice smug as he eyed Goro confidently. 

Goro stared at him in silence, waiting to see who would speak first until the sound of his phone ringing pierced the quiet tension of their silent conversation. Goro brought his ringing phone out of his pocket, one of the _default_ ringtones, not the obnoxious bubblegum pop songs Akira has assigned to each of his contacts.

“It’s Ann,” Goro informed him, forgetting about their petty argument that could have gone on forever given how stubborn the two boys were. Akira pulled the stuffed cat to his chest to give Goro space as he answered the call.

“Hi, Ann,” he greeted his bubbly friend.

“Goro, I just got back to my hotel from my shoot today, and the director was _awful,”_ Ann rambled in one quick breath. “Are you free to rant right now? Shiho’s studying,” Goro could practically hear the girl’s pout as she whined.

He turned his head to glance at Akira before answering. “Yeah, now’s fine.”

Akira shot him a glare that didn’t have any actual heat behind it, and Goro mouthed a _sorry_ before telling Ann to continue her rant as he walked out of the common area to his room. 

Morgana was asleep on Goro’s bed when we walked in, smiling softly as he pet the cat and offered Ann an ear to complain to.

* * *

Goro rolled out of bed on Thursday at nearly the same time that he had woken up the morning prior for his exam. Unlike yesterday, he unfortunately didn’t have Akira to make him coffee and breakfast before his morning shift, only receiving that treatment on days he had exams, or when Akira was _still_ awake when Goro woke up early in the morning, or the rare instances where Akira actually went to sleep and got up at a reasonable time. Although Goro would never _ask_ Akira to wake up at such an early hour for him, he couldn’t help but yearn for his roommate’s coffee as he trudged his way toward his bedroom door. 

Goro was about to go start the coffee machine when he noticed it. 

Walking out of his room, he narrowly avoided stepping on something small that had been leaning against his door.

It was the Morgana orb that Akira had tried to give him last night, the cat’s face looking up at Goro after rolling onto its back without the support of the bedroom door to lean against. The inanimate cat stared at him, a sad visual of an orb abandoned on the floor, blue eyes practically begging Goro to give the plush a home.

But Goro… couldn’t let Akira win that easily. 

He didn’t want to just display the Mona orb in his room like Akira wanted him to, but he also didn’t want to do something drastic with the plushie that would actually upset Akira, like discarding the orb entirely. So he just stuffed it in his bag with his apron and textbooks to figure out what to do with the stuffed cat later as he continued getting ready for work.

When Goro arrived at Frostbucks, he was greeted by Yusuke, an odd sight to see the tall artist during such an early shift. 

“Good morning, Goro,” Yusuke hummed. “I received an interesting phone call from Akira late last night asking if I know anything about tarot readings.”

Goro stared at Yusuke for a moment, partially out of confusion and partially because the coffee he made at home didn’t have nearly enough caffeine to fully wake him up. 

“Why?”

“He said you received one?” Yusuke shrugged as though that was enough to explain everything. “A reading, that is.”

“You did?!” Goro heard Hifumi gasp as she tumbled through the front entrance of the Frostbucks, already clad in her green apron with her hair pulled back in a low ponytail much longer than Goro’s own. Her wide eyes were stuck on Goro in disbelief as she walked further into the restaurant. 

“When?” she demanded. “Why didn’t I know about this?!”

“Last night,” Goro answered blankly, hoping to not make his friend any more interested in the topic. “Where’s Shiho?”

Yusuke furrowed his brows at him. “You haven’t seen the new schedule?”

The mention of the new schedule was enough to make Hifumi momentarily drop the tarot reading discussion, taking her phone out of her pocket and handing it to Goro so he could see the new schedule sent out the night prior without his realization. 

“Take a look,” Hifumi sighed as Goro eyed the schedule that was completely lacking any order.

He groaned as he saw all the closing shifts Niijima had scheduled him for the following week, especially the one scheduled for…

An involuntary gasp escaped his lips, not even noticing that he did so as he brought Hifumi’s phone closer to his face.

“She wants me to close tomorrow?”

Apparently his reaction to the newly assigned shifts was blatant enough to give away his distress. 

“What’s tomorrow?” Hifumi questioned, raising an eyebrow at Goro.

He snapped out of his shock to try to act as natural as possible, knowing Hifumi was more than capable of reading through his lies without fail after years of friendship. 

He handed the girl her phone back, checking the time as he did so and noting that they needed to actually open in less than five minutes. “Akira and I were–”

“I’ll cover for you!” Hifumi blurted out without letting him finish, spinning quickly on her heel to face Goro again after slipping her phone in her pocket. “You’ll just have to take my morning shift instead.”

“Uh,” Goro furrowed his eyebrows at his friend’s hastiness. “But then you’ll have to work a clopen..?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hifumi laughed stiffly, hoping to get the stubborn boy to just accept her offer without suspicion. And while it wasn’t Hifumi’s bad acting that made him not argue with her, it was the fact that her phone was loudly alerting the three of them that it was time to open the store and begin their busy morning shift.

By the late afternoon, Goro had almost completely forgotten about the Mona plush in his book bag, but when he arrived home after work followed by back-to-back classes, he was met with yet _another_ Mona orb leaning against his bedroom door.

Goro squinted disdainfully at the stuffed spherical cat lying on the floor, recognizing it as the original Mona orb, one that Akira had countless copies of. He sighed as he picked it up, taking a moment to glare at the orb in his hand before turning to knock on Akira’s door across the hall to let his roommate know that he was foolish if he really thought Goro would let this fly so easily.

But Akira didn’t seem to be home, which was disappointing. Goro was looking forward to arguing with him.

Ryuji wasn’t home either, so Goro could only assume the two were out doing something together. He sighed once again, this time more downcast than frustrated as he decided to order delivery for an early dinner and tucked the Mona orb into his book bag with the other.

* * *

On Friday morning, Goro woke up at his usual time at dawn so he could cover Hifumi’s opening shift and later spend his free night doing whatever Akira had planned. He blinked his eyes awake, noticing that Morgana had fallen asleep in his room for the third night in a row as he sat up to pet the soft fur of the cat curled up in a ball next to him.

Goro had absolutely no problem with Morgana sleeping in his room so frequently as of late. Quite the opposite of a problem actually, the presence of the cat somehow calmed him and helped him peacefully sleep without restlessness on the nights he spent in Goro’s room. He knew that Akira felt the same about the cat’s calming qualities, and since Mona slept in Akira’s room most nights, Goro couldn’t help but wonder how much a night without Morgana by his side affected him. 

Goro’s second sight of the morning, after appreciating the cuteness of the resting cat for a moment, was that his phone had been bombarded with texts from Ann in the middle of the night raving about the pumpkin flavored whipped cream she had in the states, along with _many_ pictures of the orange whipped cream on a frappuccino from various angles.

He set his phone back on his nightstand, slowly rolling out of bed so he could go make something with enough caffeine to get himself to function. 

When Goro opened the door to his bedroom, just like the previous morning, a stuffed Morgana fell onto its back after having the support of his door ripped away. This plush Mona was a lot bigger than the orbs, however. It had a full cat body about the size of a younger Morgana (before he got hooked on fatty tuna), and this Mona plushie was also a lot fluffier than the orbs. Most noticeably, unlike the black fur adorned on most Mona collectables, this Mona’s fur was bright _pink._

Goro recognized the stuffed cat as one of the limited time Mona plushies Akira had on his website for Valentine’s Day, picking it up to see a red heart hanging from the cat’s collar. He brought it into his room with a huff to put the Mona toy in his bag with the two orbs.

The pink Mona wasn’t big enough to take up too much room, and thankfully Goro didn’t have classes on Fridays so his bag was free of textbooks. But if Akira kept this up, and Goro had reason to believe that Akira _will keep this up,_ it won’t take too long for Goro to run out of room in his bag pretty quickly, and he’ll have to figure out a new plan for what to do with the Mona toys he’s been given.

He sighed as he turned on the coffee machine.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

Beginning a morning of dealing with aggravating customers who made it extremely hard for Goro to resist throwing scorching hot coffee in their faces, was dreadful at best, but without Hifumi and Shiho there, Friday’s opening shift was absolutely hellish. 

Niijima must not be coping with her stress in the slightest if she thought scheduling one of their newest hires to work during the busiest part of the day would be a good idea. The kid couldn’t have been older than 15, and Goro didn’t even consider him to be a barista yet, seeing as new hire was usually assigned tedious tasks no one else wanted to do.

And the kid – Shinya – was also kind of a pain in the ass. He was rude in an immature, high schooler way, completely different from the Sophisticated and Mature Gossip that Goro shared with Hifumi and Shiho over wine. His newest coworker was not sophisticated nor mature at all, he was a _teenager,_ whose presence reminded Goro of how grateful he is to not be suffering through high school anymore.

At least Shinya was a quick enough learner when it came to making drinks, and with Yukiko’s help offering her unbeatable speed at preparing drinks and Chie’s capability of handling difficult customers at the register, the early shift at Frostbucks wasn’t the _worst_ that Goro’s ever had.

He still misses his friends. 

After four hours, Goro finally clocked out, making himself a cold brew before sitting alone in the break room as he scrolled idly on his phone, glad to not have classes to rush to after such a tiresome shift. He was in the middle of untying his apron when Shinya walked in, drinking a poorly-made caramel frappuccino he must have prepared for himself. 

Shinya nodded his head in a greeting as Goro folded his apron, his coworker watching him intently as he placed the apron into his bag on the table. Shinya then tore the straw away from his mouth, eyes wide as he rushed over to Goro in disbelief.

o

“Dude, _where_ did you get this?” Shinya questioned, his eyes popping out of their sockets as he pulled one of the Mona orbs out of Goro’s bag.

It was the first plush Akira had given to Goro, proudly clad in a cat face mask covering the orb’s nose and mouth, and while Goro wasn’t an expert on the merch Akira has sold versus what he’s made solely for himself, he knew he hadn’t seen a Mona orb particularly like that one before Akira had given it to him.

Goro wasn’t even given a chance to explain himself, Shinya’s gasp as he pulled out the pink Morgana from Goro’s bag was loud enough to cut off his train of thought entirely. 

“You have the Valentine’s Mona-Mona?” the teenager shrieked excitedly, his eyes still wide with shock. “How did you get such rare Mona merch? I’ve never even _seen_ this one,” Shinya extended his arm to show off the masked cat orb, shaking it to emphasize the significance. 

There were many ways Goro could go about this. Shinya was clearly a fan of Akira if he knew who Morgana was _and_ which of the cat souvenirs were considered rare. 

Goro could tell him the truth and explain that he even has access to the _real life cat Morgana himself,_ and less importantly, that he knows Akira too, but Shinya probably wouldn’t believe that.

He could say something that Shinya probably _would_ believe, a lie like he bought them on eBay. 

He could lie completely and convince Shinya that he has an underground Mona source and drive him crazy as he tried to figure out who it is.

Or Goro could be as vague as possible so he could go home already.

“A gift,” Goro answered simply, plucking the stuffed cats away to get Shinya’s greasy teenage fingers off his possessions. 

Shinya’s skeptical look was proof that he wasn’t pleased with the elder’s response, but Goro had been at work long enough this morning, so he returned the soft Mona toys to his bag safely before walking out of the break room without another word to his younger coworker.

* * *

Goro arrived back at the apartment to see Akira making coffee in the kitchen, his curly hair even messier than usual and his lack of glasses making it evident that he just rolled out of bed. 

“You’re up early,” Goro commented, watching as Akira poured himself a cup of coffee before moving to the cabinet to get a mug for Goro as well.

The younger boy made a sleepy noise, responded to by Morgana meowing as the cat entered the kitchen for his breakfast. Akira chugged a few sips of his coffee, shuddering at its boiling temperature before retrieving some of the premium cat food to fill Morgana’s bowl.

“I’m going shopping with Haru soon,” Akira finally explained why he was awake before noon once the cat was happily munching away on his breakfast.

Before Goro could ask what occasion called for shopping, Ryuji was running into the kitchen wearing a blanket draped around his shoulders, his eyes wide with horror.

“I just.. had..” Ryuji spoke between panting breaths, “the _most.._ fucked up dream..” the blonde paused as he straightened his spine, his mouth agape in shock as he looked at his roommates. “Where I was a cactus and Ann and Futaba sliced me open for water…” 

There was silence as Akira and Goro stared at Ryuji for a moment, unsure how to reply as Ryuji looked between them with a terrified expression, his eyes still wide with fear from his dream as he waited for their response.

Silence continued to fill the room until Akira eventually cleared his throat. 

“Well, I’m gonna go shower.” 

Akira left the room with his cup of coffee in hand, leaving behind only the sounds of Morgana eating his breakfast. Ryuji poured himself his own cup of coffee, dumping cream and sugar into the mug to make the beverage suitable for his tastes.

“I’m gonna scramble a ton of eggs,” Ryuji spoke after a few minutes of savouring his too-sweet coffee. “Want some?”

It sounded better than Goro’s original breakfast plan of nothing, so he agreed. 

After about 15 minutes, Akira returned to the kitchen after his shower, dressed warmly to go shopping with Haru and a towel wrapped around his head to dry his thick hair. He grabbed a plate to pile on the rest of the scrambled eggs and joined his roommates at the table already eating their breakfast.

“I thought you were gonna stream today,” Ryuji nodded at Akira’s bundle of warm clothes to protect him from the cool Autumn breeze.

“Later,” Akira reassured, covering his mouth with his hand as he scarfed down the eggs.

Ryuji looked back and forth between Akira and Goro contemplatively, his brows pinched as confusion washed over him.

“You’ll have time before..” he glanced at Goro before quickly diverting his eyes back to Akira, “..your date, right?”

Goro felt his eyes widen, nearly choking as he stuttered over a few noises that didn’t sound like actual human words. Akira on the other hand, remained completely unfazed by the question, shrugging like Ryuji had asked him about the weather.

“Yeah, dude,” Akira waved his hand in a gesture to let Ryuji know everything was under control. “I won’t be shopping with Haru for that long. If Ann were here though, it would be a different story.” 

Akira stood up from the table with his empty plate in hand after finishing his eggs in record speed. He had already put his shoes on by the door when he was turning around to address his roommates again. 

“Wish me luck,” Akira smiled with a wave as he grabbed his bag and left the apartment. 

Goro hadn’t even thought about his quick exit being strange until after breakfast, when he found another piece of Mona merch leaning against his bedroom door. But this plush was a lot bigger than the others, because this plush was an entire _pillow_. 

The large cat’s face watched Goro as he decided what to do with something he definitely couldn’t fit in his bag. He _couldn’t_ just display it in his room without putting up a fight, Akira was nearly addicted to things that resembled his cat, and although Goro did think some of it was cute in moderation, Akira had a tendency to go all out on things. 

Not to mention that Goro’s heart would swell every time he looked at one of the stupid things, and really, he just didn’t want to deal with that.

His staring contest with the cat pillow on the floor was interrupted by the actual cat himself sniffing the pillow. Morgana must have decided that he liked its scent because he was then rubbing his face against it in a lovey-kitty state. 

Then an idea popped into Goro’s head.

Morgana seemed to really enjoy this pillow that resembled him, and it was the perfect size for a cat to curl up on. Morgana _had_ been spending a lot of his sleep time in Goro’s room lately, it was only responsible that he made his bed as comfortable as possible for the cat.

Goro lifted the pillow from the floor while he opened the door to his bedroom, and Morgana quickly ran into the room with his cute little cat legs, hopping onto Goro’s bed to start kneading his claws on Goro’s blanket.

Mona’s attention was swiftly stolen by the pillow when Goro placed it next to him on the bed and watched the cat sniff the fluffy design of his face. It didn’t take long for Morgana to curl up in a ball on the soft pillow, his fur blending in with the black and white backdrop. 

Goro couldn’t help but smile at the adorable cat. The sound of Morgana purring was calming, and the sight of the sleeping cat resting on the Mona pillow was almost enough to make Goro want to crawl back into bed and take a nap with the peaceful ball of fur.

Apparently Morgana’s adorableness was more than enough to coax Goro into actually taking a nap, and for much longer than he was fine with, waking up a few hours later feeling more groggy now than he did when he originally woke up at dawn that morning. He had taken a shower before work, but after his long shift and an unplanned nap that left him disoriented, Goro figured he would need another shower to wake himself up again. 

He sat up to look at the cat that was a siren of sleep. Morgana was breathing heavily as he slept, curled up in a ball on the soft pillow with his paws cutely covering his face. Goro ran a hand across Mona’s black fur and watched as the cat stretched his arms before quickly falling back asleep again. He cherished the precious sight of the resting cat for a few more seconds before checking the time on his phone.

It was 4:30. Goro definitely hadn’t meant to sleep so late into the afternoon and waste away all his valuable homework time, but hopefully a shower would make him feel more refreshed. He exited his room, first deciding to make his way to the kitchen to start the coffee machine for the second time that day.

Unlike in high school, Goro now had a caffeine cutoff at 3 P.M. so he could actually fall asleep at a normal time at night. But most days he didn’t sleep through half the day in a cat-induced nap, so he decided he should be allowed an exception. Besides, Niijima had rescheduled his opening shift the next day with an afternoon shift instead, so Goro would have an opportunity to sleep in if he needed it. 

He started the coffee machine then walked back down the hall for his shower, stopping in his tracks when he heard a noise from Akira’s room as he passed by, alerting him that Akira must have gotten home and already started streaming while Goro was asleep. He was perplexed as he stared at Akira’s closed bedroom door for a moment, wondering why Akira didn’t wake him considering he never streamed if Mona wasn’t with him.

Goro took a deep breath before darting back to his room, waking up Morgana on his bed as he lifted the heavy cat in his arms to bring him across the hall and quietly let him into Akira’s room.

* * *

He did feel better after a shower and a cup of coffee, enough that Goro was able to put a couple hours into finishing the final draft of his ethics essay long before its due date next week. He hadn’t eaten anything for lunch thanks to his unexpected nap, only noticing how hungry he was when he felt his stomach growling as he wondered what time Akira was planning to head out for dinner.

Just as he had that thought, Goro’s phone vibrated next to his laptop on his desk, lifting it to see a text from Akira asking if he could let him in because he forgot his keys. Goro sighed at the boy’s tendency to get distracted easily, but a smile slipped onto his face as he imagined Akira waiting desperately in the hallway of their apartment building. 

As Goro stood, he briefly wondered what Akira needed to go out again for, and his questions only multiplied when he opened the front door of the apartment.

Akira was dressed in a silky black button up and dark fit slacks that were practically begging for Goro to trail his eyes down his long legs, a lopsided smile plastered on his face as he stood in the doorway. His hair was pushed back with gel to the best of his ability, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses, and while Goro thought that anyone who considered Akira’s eyes to be any less beautiful when he was wearing his glasses was a complete fool, he felt his breath catch in his throat when Akira’s shining eyes met his.

He looked…

Nice. 

Really nice. 

Even ravishing if Goro were to be so bold. 

Akira was also, oddly, holding a bouquet of flowers, red tulips decorated with violets, smiling nervously as he noticed Goro’s eyes land on the bouquet. He extended the flowers in front of him for Goro to take, grinning bashfully as Goro slowly took them into his own grasp. 

“I thought they were pretty,” Akira explained as Goro admired the red and purple petals, the colors blending together in a satisfying way he wouldn’t have expected. 

“They are,” Goro agreed, his gaze still directed on the flowers as he moved out of the doorway to let Akira slide by him. “Can you get a vase?” 

Akira began searching through the kitchen cabinets to find one of the vases Haru gave them as a housewarming present when they first moved in, pulling one out of the cupboard to fill it with water and setting it on the counter next to the sink. Goro unwrapped the flowers and put them in the vase, moving them to the center of the island counter to be displayed proudly. 

He figured it made sense that Akira would want to get some flowers to brighten up the kitchen. It went well with the Mona-themed house essentials that decorated the rest of the apartment.

“You want them there?” Goro heard Akira ask, looking up from where he set the flowers on the island to see a confused expression on Akira’s face.

Goro just looked back at him blankly. “Everyone can see them here.” 

Obviously.

Akira blinked, staring back at Goro dumbfoundedly until he slowly nodded, his eyes analyzing Goro as though he was trying to read his mind.

“Okay,” Akira said after a moment, replacing his unreadable expression with a warm smile. “Ready to go?”

Goro wasn’t exactly sure what Akira had in mind for dinner, but considering how well-dressed he was, he could assume it would at least be more than casual. Goro thought he looked decent himself, considering he always dressed how one would expect a philosophy student to dress. He slipped on his shoes and a light coat, figuring the argyle sweater vest he changed into after his post-nap shower would have to suffice.

“Shouldn’t you get your keys?” Goro raised an eyebrow as he questioned the younger boy who hadn’t moved at all throughout Goro’s final preparations. 

Akira pulled his keys out of his front pocket, dangling the keys with his thumb and index finger with a smug look on his face.

“Oh,” Goro responded dumbly, not really sure what he was supposed to think as he watched Akira put his keys back in his pocket

“If I just knocked on the door you wouldn’t have answered,” Akira explained, his voice almost a whisper as he leaned closer, lifting a hand to snake his fingers just below Goro’s elbow, his firm grip instantly heating Goro’s skin even beneath all his layers.

“We have a reservation to get to,” Akira purred into his ear as he tugged Goro toward the door.

After not too long of a train ride, they ended up at a fancy sushi restaurant in Ginza that was much more expensive than Goro had expected. The ambience was peaceful with dim lighting, and Goro could admit that it was somewhere he would likely enjoy if he hadn’t felt somewhat out of place somewhere so pricey.

Akira could probably tell what he was thinking, looking at him with earnest eyes as he studied him from across the table. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover the bill.”

Before Goro had the chance to protest that he really shouldn’t be doing all this just because Goro did well on another exam, Akira was raising his index finger to stop him. 

“Goro, seriously. I know whenever someone offers to spot the bill you secretly want to go crazy and order the entire menu,” Akira persisted, “but you never do because you don’t want to seem like a bitch.” 

Akira laughed when he heard Goro scoff at the comment, smiling at Goro as he looked at him insistently. “So just get whatever you want.”

Goro couldn’t help the faint smile blooming on his face as well, raising an eyebrow playfully as Akira’s smile turned into a full beam. “Because you already know I’m a bitch?”

“Maybe,” Akira replied teasingly, resting his chin on his hand and leaning closer across the table, “but you’re my–”

“Holy fuck!” 

A familiar voice interrupted Akira before he could finish his sentence, and Goro turned his head quickly in the direction of the shout to see his teenage coworker Shinya completely underdressed for the restaurant they were in, wearing jeans and a graphic t-shirt as he rushed towards their table. 

“You’re Joker, right?” he asked Akira without even sparing Goro a glance.

“I.. am..?” Akira stammered, his surprise at the sudden interruption making it sound more like a question than an actual confirmation. He blinked before his brain caught up with the change in conversation, smiling politely at Shinya once his bewilderment had washed away so he could address the teenager hovering at their table. “Are you a fan?”

“Big fan,” Shinya quickly corrected, sounding very proud of that fact until he put on a serious expression. “You fucking suck at games.”

Akira stared dumbfoundedly for a moment, his smile fading before he laughed awkwardly. “I think I’m alright.”

“Exactly,” Shinya crossed his arms over his chest, “you’re just alright.”

“Shinya,” Goro hissed at the informally dressed fifteen-year-old who was nearly shouting in the middle of a restaurant, one that probably makes more money in a single night than Goro does in an entire month. “What are you doing here?”

The teenager turned his neck quickly to see who just said his name, eyes widening when he noticed that Goro had been at the table the entire time.

“Holy fuck!” Shinya repeated even louder this time, gaining the attention of patrons at surrounding tables. “Akechi! Why didn’t you tell me Joker’s your boyfriend?”

Goro sputtered out an exasperated sound as his face turned beet red, his utter embarrassment over the whole situation preventing him from forming proper words in response, completely baffled by his coworker’s lack of shame.

“You two know each other?” Akira asked. He looked perplexed, but he still wasn’t even close to Goro’s level of exasperation.

“We work together,” Goro whined into his hands he used to cover his red face with, embarrassed that he shared a job with such an obnoxious child. 

Shinya suddenly gasped as his eyes widened with realization. “ _That’s_ how you got all those rare Monas!” 

Goro shot a glare at the boy hovering by the table in hopes of scaring him off, but his attempt was ruined by Shinya’s attention being captured by Akira talking again.

“Rare Monas, huh?” Akira raised his brows at Shinya as he leaned his chin against his hand in the same position he had been minutes ago before being interrupted, a devious smile blooming on his face. 

“Yeah! He had like three with him,” Shinya beamed proudly.

“ _With him,_ huh?” Akira echoed the teenager, his eyes remaining on Shinya and avoiding Goro’s glare from across the table, curling his fingers over his lips in a non-attempt to hide his laugh.

Goro scowled even harder at his company, burning holes into Akira’s temple before inclining his head to direct his raging glare at Shinya to try to prevent him from answering the question. 

His teenage coworker didn’t pay Goro any attention, however, his eyes glued to Akira in a starstruck gaze. Just as Shinya opened his mouth to confirm to Akira that, yes, Goro did have the Mona plushies with him in his bag at work, Goro shot up out of his seat to yank the boy away from the table by the elbow.

“Leave us alone and I’ll get you any rare Mona you want,” Goro hissed quietly into his ear, shoving the teenager away from him without waiting for an answer before turning back to Akira.

When a fuming Goro returned to his seat, Akira was smiling at him knowingly, his eyebrows raised as he looked at Goro with amusement.

“Don’t,” Goro stated simply, knowing it was a worthless attempt.

“I was wondering what you did with them,” Akira said anyway, humming as he watched Goro with gleaming eyes. “I didn’t see them in your room.”

“You went in my room?” Goro asked, not having an issue with the fact, but looking for any opportunity to change the subject. 

Akira rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you keep catnapping Mona.”

“I didn’t _catnap_ anyone,” the older boy said in a huff. “Maybe he just likes the one place in the apartment that doesn’t have his face everywhere.”

Akira gasped over-dramatically, a hand over his heart to show how wounded he felt at Goro’s comment. 

“Mona loves his face everywhere!” Akira protested. “He loves to be on camera when I’m streaming, too. He’s the most self-centered cat I’ve ever met.” Some of Akira’s untamable hair managed to escape the gel holding it in place, the dark locks falling over his eyes as he tilted his head to the side. “Maybe he just likes you.”

“He’s a cat, and I feed him, of course he likes me,” Goro huffed, lowering his eyes back to the sushi menu on the table and feeling his stomach growl as he looked over the list of expensive options.

Akira feeds Goro, and Goro likes him too.

That was a stupid thought, Goro told his hellbrain, because Goro is not a cat.

“Do you know what you want?” Goro asked Akira as he read over the sushi options.

Akira nodded affirmingly before picking up his own menu in front of him. “I’m not sure what Mona will want, though.”

“Fatty tuna,” Goro glanced up from his menu to give him a pointed look, “obviously.”

After receiving just a hum as a response, Goro squinted his eyes in suspicion as he watched Akira thoroughly search the menu.

“You’re not thinking of spoiling him with an entire assortment of sushi, are you?” Goro warily raised an eyebrow.

“Depends,” Akira sighed deeply, not looking up from the list of any sushi a person (or cat) could possibly desire. “Do you think he would like anything here?” 

The question was asked in earnest, Akira finally lifting his eyes from the menu to make contact with Goro’s incredulous stare.

“He’s a cat,” Goro said simply, implying that Morgana would pleasantly eat anything offered to him.

“You’re right, I’ll just splurge on more fatty tuna,” Akira decided, his voice distant like he didn’t hear Goro at all. Goro assumed that Akira might have forgotten he was there entirely as he intently thought about his cat, until Akira was looking up from his menu to meet Goro’s gaze.

“And I’ll splurge on you too,” he winked, flashing a sweet smile before focusing on the sushi choices again. 

Goro felt shivers run across his skin, his adrenaline pumping as he watched Akira read the menu, looking so serene in the dim lights of the restaurant, the chandeliers reflecting on the glossy surface of his dark irises blending with his pupils.

“Do you know what you want?” Akira asked after a few moments, curiosity in his soft voice as he looked at Goro as though his answer was the most important thing in the universe. 

“I-I do,” Goro stammered his answer, feeling his face heat from Akira’s tender gaze, his blush deepening even more from embarrassment of getting so flustered over his best friend in the first place. He cleared his throat in an effort to seem more collected. “Do you?”

A grin stretched across Akira’s face at Goro’s response, and the brunette felt as though he was in the presence of a predator about to attack its prey. 

“You already asked me that, Goro,” Akira pointed out, a comment that was completely unnecessary in Goro’s opinion. “Are you nervous?”

The older boy felt his pulse speed up as if on cue, scoffing to hide any signs of nerves he might have. “Why would I have reason to be nervous?”

“I get nervous around you,” Akira confessed with a breathy laugh, though he still had a teasing grin on his face that gave Goro the idea he wasn’t being serious. 

Probably.

“I feel perfectly calm right now, thank you,” Goro stated curtly, letting himself feel pride at not stuttering over his words.

“You’re cute,” Akira giggled into his hand, causing Goro to instantly lose the small sense of pride he just gained as his brain started to malfunction.

“H-huh?” he sputtered awkwardly, his eyebrows raising to his hairline as he stared with quizzical, wide eyes.

Akira was.. definitely teasing him. But not in a way to make fun of him. It was almost like flirting…

But there was no way that Akira could possibly be flirting with Goro. It’s not like this was a date.

Right?

Was this... a date..?

Did Goro want this to be a date?

Well, that was a stupid question, because obviously Goro wanted this to be a date. Which was relieving to be able to admit, even if it was just internally. 

But did Akira want this to be a date?

Before Goro could get too deep in his thought or come up with a better response than just a singular faltering word, a waiter approached their table to interrupt what Goro had decided might have possibly, maybe, been flirting to take their (and Morgana’s) orders.

After their waiter retreated from their table, the two of them returned to casual and easy conversation about how their days went, with a normal amount of complaining from Goro about work and school, and Akira telling him about his excitement to unbox cards on stream this weekend that Goro didn’t know much about. 

When they were nearly done with their meal, Akira quirked his lips in a taunting smile, sending a knowing look at Goro across from him while the older boy frowned expectantly.

“So what did you do with the pillow?” Akira inquired, his grin only widening as Goro hardened his glare.

“I burned it.”

Akira breathed out a laugh, an amused smile on his face as he looked at Goro affectionately. “Sure you did. Mona would never forgive you.”

“A couple pets under his chin would get him back in my corner,” Goro shrugged, popping his last piece of sushi into his mouth to punctuate his sentence. 

“You’re lucky he’s so forgiving,” Akira chastised, placing a wounded hand over his heart, “and that he loves you so much.”

“He’s got charm,” Goro tapped his fingers on the table, smiling as he watched Akira finish the last of his sushi.

“He’s an angel,” Akira corrected him once he inhaled what remained of his dinner.

“I suppose he is.”

“You love that cat,” Akira insisted, determination in his voice as he argued for something Goro couldn’t quite figure out the end goal for.

“He…” Goro paused for a second, still caught off guard before clearing his throat. “I do love Mona.”

“So you love the Mona merch too then?” Akira smiled as innocently as he could manage.

“No.”

Akira reacted with a sound that was a mix between a defeated sigh and an offended huff. “I don’t understand you. Everyone likes things that look like cats.”

“Not everyone,” Goro countered.

“ _Yes_ everyone,” Akira squinted his eyes at the stubborn boy across from him. “You just don’t want to admit that you like them.”

“They’re..” Goro racked his brain as he tried to think of a negative term to describe the Mona decor, a surprisingly difficult thing to do, “..obnoxious.”

“They’re cats, Goro.”

Akira still sounded a bit incredulous at Goro’s persistence, but most of his irritation had washed away as a smug smile began crawling its way onto his features. “Why do you act like toy plushies were put on this planet just to torture you?”

“Why do you insist on giving them to me?” Goro shot back before he could actually contemplate Akira’s question.

“Because I know you like them,” Akira shrugged, flashing a bright smile to show off his irritating, boyish charm. “I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.”

Goro knew he didn’t exactly have a valid reason to resist the plushies so persistently. He had become long used to them existing in the apartment with him and his roommates, and Goro’s been aware of Akira’s strong parental love for the cat he’s had since high school, a presence that helped Akira get through the roughest times of his life and continues to be grounding company. Morgana was practically the communal therapy cat in their group.

Obviously Goro associated the Mona toys with Akira, but he had no reason to refuse something that reminded him of Akira, someone who had mesmerized Goro since they first met. Goro wanted everything when it came to Akira, but he constantly worried that his popular best friend didn’t want anything more from Goro than the friendship they already had. Which is why he…

He couldn’t…

It’s not as though Akira gifting him cat plushies was anything more than platonic. At least it wasn’t to Akira, Goro wasn’t foolish enough to think that this had some kind of deeper meaning to his best friend like he wishes it did. Keeping items in his room that reminded him of Akira every time he so much as looked at them would be too overwhelming for Goro. To look at the plushies and be forced to think of his crush who didn’t like him back and had thousands of fans obsessing over him at any given time... 

It was pathetic, but staying stubborn in declining the gifted cat decorations was a way Goro could avoid thinking about his feelings for Akira and all the feelings Akira doesn’t feel about him in return. Accepting gifts he related so closely to Akira would feel like he was toeing a line he was too afraid to cross. 

As Goro had said to the fortune teller a few nights ago, he is perfectly reasonable all the time.

“You know,” Akira’s voice pulled Goro away from his thoughts, refocusing his attention on his best friend studying him under the dim chandelier light. “Ryuji and Ann would be happy to watch Mona if you ever want to escape for a few days. With me.”

Goro pinched his eyebrows, confused at the suddenness of what Akira was saying. 

“I know just the place,” Akira continued without waiting for Goro to sputter out a nonsensical response, smiling distantly as though he was recalling fond memories.

“What are you talking about?” Goro questioned, still thoroughly lost about where the direction of the conversation had turned.

Akira met his eyes as he snapped out of his daydream and noticed Goro’s confused expression. 

“I talked to Ann last night,” he started his explanation. “She said that she and the whole crew drove to a less populated area of New York for a couple nights,” he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his hair out of habit, stopping himself when his fingers brushed against his hair and realized how much gel would get on his hand. “She mentioned something about how seeing the stars at night washed away practically all the stress from the shoot.”

“That’s… great?” Goro stammered, feeling genuinely pleased that Ann was able to deal with the frustrations her work had been causing her, but still baffled as to what Akira was implying.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to lay beneath the stars for a while?” Akira smiled thoughtfully, his eyes shining with a soft expression that seemed almost delicate, something that Goro couldn’t dare break.

“It would be nice,” Goro agreed, his voice trembling embarrassingly from being so caught off guard. “But why–? You want–? With me?”

“I think you deserve some stress relief,” Akira explained, his warm expression not faltering. “And I think taking a trip together makes sense as..” he suddenly seemed a bit more nervous as he paused while biting the inside of his lip, “..our eventual next step?”

Akira smiled again after being satisfied with his phrasing, and Goro felt heat rush to his cheeks as he furrowed his brows, a confused expression returning to make a home on Goro’s face.

“Our... what..?”

Before Goro could receive any type of explanation, he didn’t hide a frustrated sigh as their conversation was being interrupted for what felt like _the **millionth** time_ that night. 

The waiter was delivering their bill, and Akira grabbed it to look it over before thanking the waiter who told them the fatty tuna to-go boxes will be out shortly. 

“That reminds me,” Akira said without redirecting his attention from the bill, “we have to remember to send Ann a picture of our dessert.”

“You want dessert?” Goro wondered if he even wanted to know how much Akira had spent already.

“Not here,” Akira lifted his eyes up to meet Goro’s gaze, a faint smirk ghosting on his face before he looked back down at the bill. “She sent me gross pictures of orange whipped cream, and I need to one-up her.”

The two left the restaurant to be met with the dark blues of the evening sky, admiring the horizon lined with the array of city lights as Akira brought them back to Shibuya. He dragged Goro to the crepe stand on Central Street, the one that Ann had been a particularly big fan of ever since the dessert stand opened within walking distance of their apartment. Most nights she was in town, Ann would ask one of them to walk to Central Street with her to get something sweet from the busiest part of the neighborhood, but they would never complain considering the crepes were always worth the walk.

“Did you want crepes?” Goro asked, not having an issue with the choice but genuinely curious. “Or did you just want to die from Ann’s jealous wrath?”

“Both?” Akira smiled sheepishly. He squinted at the menu, despite already knowing his order that he gets every time, before releasing a thoughtful sigh. “I should probably get Ryuji one, too. He can have some of Mona’s fatty tuna for dinner if he wants, but he also gets pretty bad jealous crepe wrath.”

Goro laughed as Akira’s eyes widened with genuine fear over Ryuji’s crepe-related fury.

“And all Ann gets is a picture.”

“She gets to try all kinds of desserts in the states,” Akira shrugged, no longer feeling fearful of either blonde. “I think she’ll manage.”

They received their crepes after placing their orders, Akira cautiously tucking Ryuji’s crepe into the bag filled with take-out boxes before trying to angle his phone to capture a decent picture of their desserts loaded with sugar and toppings. Akira eventually lowered his crepe once he had a picture worthy of sending to Ann, distractedly tapping on his phone with one hand as the two of them began their walk back to the apartment. 

Before Goro had a chance to take a first bite of his crepe, Akira was stopping him by placing a firm hand on his shoulder, spinning Goro in place to be blinded by the bright light of a nearby advertisement sign.

“I need one of us,” Akira explained as he looped the bag of take-out around his wrist and lifted his hand to fit both of them in the frame of his phone’s screen. 

One of his hands remained on Goro’s shoulder, using his grip to pull him closer until half of Akira’s chest was glued to Goro’s side while they held up their crepes to the camera. Akira beamed as he chose a sparkly pink cat filter that provided them with ears and whiskers, and Goro grimaced as he looked at himself on the screen, noticing his stiff attempt at a smile right as Akira used his thumb to snap the picture. 

“Insta story,” Akira explained simply as his attention was stolen by the contents of his phone screen. He began walking distractedly with his nose buried in his phone, only stopping when he noticed Goro wasn’t following him and turned to see a frown on the older boy’s face. 

“Or… finsta story?” Akira compensated, his eyebrows knitted with concern.

Goro blinked out of his daze, realizing how afflicted he had become at seeing his face on screen next to Akira’s. It’s not like he’s never taken a selfie with his best friend before, he has a wealth of experience when it comes to his roommates shoving cameras in his face. But there was something about commemorating this night with Akira that made all these stupid high school crushy feelings suddenly hit him like a truck.

“Either is fine,” Goro replied, internally cringing at how strained his voice sounded as he tried to convince himself that his feelings were just a fluke.

“You sure?” Akira questioned, tilting his head as he read Goro, likely being able to tell that something was off. Goro often thought it was both a blessing and a curse that the younger boy could so easily read his feelings just from looking at him.

“I said it was fine,” Goro huffed impatiently before shutting his eyes and using his free hand to rub his temple. It _was_ fine that Akira posted the picture wherever he wanted, Goro honestly didn’t mind a bit when it came to that. But he just felt so overwhelmed suddenly, and it was even more frustrating that he couldn’t fully figure out why.

Goro also didn’t want this night to turn horribly awkward because of his odd behavior, so he tried to steady his breathing as he opened his eyelids to focus on Akira.

“Can we take another one?”

A fond smile returned to Akira’s face within an instant.“Yeah,” he spoke breathlessly, eyes wide to show off his dazzling stormy irises as he reopened the camera app. 

“Yeah,” Akira repeated, somewhat dazed as he released a deep breath, pulling Goro close again while raising his phone to capture the two boys on the screen, cat ears appearing over their faces again. “We can take as many as you’d like.”

It was easier for a smile to appear on Goro’s face this time, and Akira was just as close to him as the last time while they showed off their desserts. Akira snapped the picture and held his phone out for the two of them to admire the cute selfie without moving his body away from Goro.

“You can post this one,” Goro decided after a few seconds of examining the picture. “But…” 

He bit the inside of his lip as he glanced up at Akira, feeling a brief rush of adrenaline when he realized how close Akira’s eyes were in the contact they held. “How about one just for us?”

“Yeah,” Akira said for the third time as he looked intently into the maroon shades of Goro’s eyes, nerves flooding the both of them a way that Goro would have felt silly about if he wasn’t already becoming accustomed to the rush of emotions he felt from just being in the same proximity as his best friend. 

Akira switched to the regular camera app on his phone to take a picture of the two of them without the cat filter. He extended his arm again with his phone in hand, and Goro felt Akira rest his chin on his shoulder while he simultaneously watched it happen on Akira’s phone screen at the same time.

The screen showed Akira’s smile as he all but nuzzled against Goro’s shoulder, the lightest amount of hair gel sticking to Goro’s skin as he felt some of Akira’s hair touch his cheek. He was too distracted by Akira’s closeness to care, the feeling of his best friend pressed against him and the intoxicating aroma of his cologne was fogging Goro’s brain beyond his thinking capabilities. That, combined with the sight of the pair on the phone screen as they stood in the lights of Central Street close enough to be mistaken as more than just friends, made Goro feel weak in the knees, leaning further into the heat of Akira’s body pressed against him to prevent himself from falling over.

Goro smiled as he looked at the two of them on the phone screen, presenting their crepes that probably couldn’t take much longer of their impromptu photoshoot. 

“Cute,” Akira sang sweetly as he opened the filter-less photo to examine it. “I need you to take a picture with Mona, by the way,” Akira informed Goro as he pocketed his phone and removed himself from Goro’s personal space.

Goro tried to not feel so pathetically disappointed at the loss of heat, but his brain seemed to not be too fond of respecting his wishes lately. The two boys once again started up their slow stroll in the direction of their apartment building, Akira most likely impatient from so many pictures of his dessert and so little eating of the sugary crepe as he took a messy bite that dusted his nose and the corners of his mouth with ice cream. 

A beam lit up Goro’s face at the sight of his best friend wrinkling his nose in realization, an adorable display that was topped off by even more strands of his dark hair escaping the gel hold and falling over Akira’s forehead as he pulled the crepe away.

The occurrence was almost enough to make Goro forget about what Akira had said completely. 

“Why do you need a picture of me and Mona?”

Akira lifted his eyes to meet the amused smile still present on Goro’s face from watching his messy crepe eating habits, wiping his face with his napkin that he probably would have ignored and just used his sleeve if he were wearing more casual clothes. Akira shrugged one shoulder while they turned off Central Street to venture into the sea of buildings that led the way to their apartment. “New lockscreen.”

Goro raised a skeptical eyebrow at the dorky smile his best friend was throwing his direction. 

“And why exactly do you think you are worthy of a picture of me with Mona?” Goro teased back, not being able to help the smile forming over his features while glancing at his walking companion as they quickly found their way to the entry of their apartment building.

“I paid for dinner,” Akira answered, the corner of his lips raising in a smirk. “And dessert,” he added with a chime, turning his head to flash Goro his most charming smile as they walked through the hallway of their building. “Unless you want more..?”

Goro swallowed a lump in his throat as they neared the apartment, his face heating in a blush despite eating the cold crepe and the hallway’s air-conditioning cooling his skin.

He felt the signature nerves that he always felt around Akira make his whole body become tingly with anticipation. He didn’t want to pop the bubble surrounding them as they walked towards their apartment door in step with each other, and most importantly, Goro didn’t want to let Akira win their game of teasing like he always somehow managed to.

“Depends on what else you’re willing to offer,” Goro fluttered his lashes at Akira, watching him switch his crepe to his other hand as he searched his pockets for his keys. 

“Aw, Goro,” Akira cooed as he turned his keys in the lock, leaving them in the lock without actually opening the door as an amused smile emerged on his face. “If you want a goodnight kiss all you have to do is ask~”

Akira leaned closer to Goro, practically looming over him despite their similarity in height as the two of them stood outside the door, paying no mind to anything that wasn’t the other boy staring back. Goro didn’t have to wonder if his cheeks were flushed bright red, he could tell by the matching blush that was blooming across Akira’s own skin as his teasing smirk softened, staring at Goro with his mouth slightly agape as the hallway filled with just the sounds of their breathing.

The tension between them was thick enough to be cut with a knife, and Goro had no idea in the slightest what he was supposed to do in this situation. 

There was no way Akira _seriously_ wanted Goro to kiss him, right? 

Majority of the time, the two of them were not kissing, so it was more likely than not that this wasn’t serious. Something Ryuji would laugh at and crack a joke about “kissing your homies goodnight.” 

But Akira was slowly leaning closer to him, his glossy eyes were wide and searching Goro’s heavy gaze for something that Goro couldn’t figure out. He felt like he was missing something extremely important as his breaths mixed with Akira’s, so close that he could feel the heat radiating off his lean body, their half-eaten crepes forgotten in their hands as neither dared to break their intense eye contact.

Then a sudden noise boomed from inside the apartment, startling them apart as a stunned meow and quick footsteps sounded from within, followed by Ryuji shouting a curse loud enough for them to hear from outside. The apartment door was abruptly yanked open by their blond roommate, Morgana stanced behind him with his tail puffed ridiculously big from being startled, surrounded by a few throw pillows scattered on the floor.

“Fucking finally,” Ryuji greeted them as he tried to catch his breath (Goro was as well but for different reasons). “I swear that cat has a personal vendetta against me.” 

Ryuji perked up as he noticed the bag of takeout in Akira’s hand, giving no attention to the weird energy present between the two boys. “Is that for us?”

Akira handed him the bag as a confirmation, trailing into the apartment behind Ryuji who was hurrying to the kitchen. Goro watched Morgana gracefully leap onto the counter to sniff the bag while Ryuji pulled out the delicately wrapped crepe and the styrofoam boxes of fatty tuna.

“Thanks man,” Ryuji spoke with a mouthful of fish, a messy sight as Morgana joined him in gobbling down pieces of tuna while still standing on the counter. Goro cringed somewhat as he toed off his shoes, but he was long used to the lack of cleanliness that his roommates (and cat) would unleash when Ann wasn’t around to help Goro chastise their habits.

Akira had a pleased smile on his face as he watched the blond obliterate the fatty tuna with Morgana, both acting like starving stray animals as they ate. Goro’s eyes landed on the vase filled with the bouquet of flowers in the danger zone of the feast occurring on the island counter, quickly moving to pick up the flowers and save them from Morgana’s… cat qualities.

Goro hugged the vase against his chest like the flowers were in immense danger as he carefully stepped away from the island counter. He darted his eyes around the common area in search for the best place for the flowers to take refuge, not even noticing Akira approaching him until he felt the warmth of a hand brush his shoulder and Akira’s breath against his ear.

“Don’t you think those would look best in your room?” Akira suggested, his voice at a whisper while he gently moved his fingers against the soft material of Goro’s sweater vest, trailing his hand from Goro’s shoulder down his arm.

Goro tightened his hold on the glass vase against his chest as he shivered, his breath becoming heavy as he felt Akira’s presence engulfing his senses. He wanted nothing more than to let himself lean into Akira’s touch, to have his warmth envelop him and completely melt into Akira’s embrace. But his roommate was already pulling away, and all Goro could do was nod weakly as he wished he didn’t suddenly feel depleted without Akira’s body pressed against his.

Akira threw away the remains of his finished crepe, offering Goro a smile as he passed him to saunter down the hallway to his room. Goro stood alone near the edge of the common area for a moment, the flowers clutched closely to his chest as he took a deep breath and followed the path down the hall to his own room.

He set the flowers on his desk, the red and purple petals giving a pop of color to the neutral colors of his room. They did look nice, Goro thought, next to the only other decoration on his desk that was a small succulent he was gifted from Hifumi. Haru’s elegant glass vase did contrast somewhat to the ordinary supplies and textbooks littering his desk, but he didn’t care that much, especially knowing that the flower petals are in a spot where the sun will shine in the morning. 

It was starting to get late as Goro appreciated the flowers for a minute longer, a smile on his face as he replayed the events of the evening in his head. Although he didn’t have an opening shift tomorrow, he was still exhausted from his day despite his impromptu nap with Morgana, so Goro moved to change into clothes he could sleep in and internally debated if he should call Ann that night before exiting his room so he could brush his teeth.

Goro knocked on Akira’s door on his way back to his room, watching as Morgana came slowly strolling towards him from the direction of the kitchen, a contented kitty after having a dinner of any cat’s dreams. He leaned down to pet Mona on the head, the cat happily meeting his hand by rubbing the top of his head against his palm. Goro was smiling by the time Akira pulled the door open, changed into a more casual outfit with his hair sticking up in all directions from trying to get the gel out.

“Hey,” Akira smirked, expression awfully confident for someone whose hair currently looked so ridiculous, towering over Goro who was still leaning down to pet the cat at his feet. “Came back for more?”

Goro huffed out a breath, standing up fully to come to eye level with Akira and feeling Morgana rub his fur against his legs due to the loss of attention. 

“I was going to thank you for tonight,” Goro squinted at him, “but not if it inflates your ego even more.”

“Come on,” Akira whined, a pout replacing his cocky smirk to try to get Goro to humor him. “Ann says confidence is sexy.” He batted his lashes at Goro in an attempt to be cute, but the effect was mostly shattered by how comical Akira’s spiky hair was making him look.

“Ann is dating one of the shyest people we know,” Goro argued, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that screamed _I’m right, you’re wrong, give it up._

Akira giggled at Goro’s pushiness, his laughter leaving behind a delicate smile, wide-blown pupils looking at Goro with nerves that weren’t there before.

“I’m glad you had fun tonight,” Akira voiced softly, the curve of his lips not lowering as his glistening eyes patiently waited for Goro’s response.

Goro returned his smile as he looked at Akira fondly. “I did. We should do that again.”

He had a moment of brief panic where he worried that wasn’t the right thing to say, to invite himself to something Akira had planned and paid for, to make Akira inconvenience himself like that again.

But his panic vanished when a toothy grin slowly widened on Akira’s blushing face. 

“You really want to?” he asked breathily, excitement and uncertainty blending in his voice as he watched Goro with hope in his eyes.

Goro felt nearly overwhelmed from the yearning expression on Akira’s face, his eyes hopeful like he thought a night out with Goro was something truly valuable, and Akira seemed nervous as if Goro would ever even think about saying no.

“Of course,” Goro answered with a tilt to his head.

Akira exhaled in relief, fidgeting his hands by playing with the seam of his shirt. “Cool.”

Goro responded with a small laugh and was rewarded with a meow from the cat at their feet, who was starting to get annoyed with how little attention he’s been receiving since the start of their conversation. Morgana meowed out another plea for pets and Akira leaned down to scoop up the ball of black fur in his arms. 

“My handsome boy,” Akira cooed to the cat in a baby voice, receiving purrs as he pet Morgana’s dark coat. “Were you gonna take him to bed with you?” Akira asked, lifting his eyes to address Goro who was trying to resist also petting the cat.

“I’m not sure Morgana would want to go to sleep this early,” Goro pointed out sheepishly, mostly as an excuse for Akira to just take the cat into his room like Goro knows he wants to do.

“Mona loves to sleep,” Akira countered as he shifted the weight of the heavy furball in his arms. “I don’t think he wants to hear me scour the internet all night for weird videos I need to show the world.”

“Mona can be a night owl when he wants to be,” Goro shot back with an exasperated huff. “And you wouldn’t have that problem if you streamed actual gameplay.”

“Holy shit,” Akira laughed. “Did Ryuji pay you to say that?” 

“I was trying to insult you,” to the best of his ability, at least, Goro thought as he scowled. “Now you have to take Mona as my apology.”

“Apology accepted,” Akira shrugged, pushing the heavy cat closer to Goro to force him to take Morgana into his arms. “But he likes your room more.”

“Oh, did he tell you that?” Goro hissed, but he still took the cat as he watched a pleased grin widen on Akira’s face.

“Hey guys.” 

Ryuji’s voice suddenly sounded from behind Goro, startling the both of them who didn’t notice him come out of his room. 

“Mona and I had kind of a bonding experience today with our spiritual fatty tuna encounter,” he informed them casually, not noticing the tension between them as they argued over said cat, “so I think it’s only right that I take him tonight.”

Akira and Goro stood in silence for a moment, neither expecting this turn of events but not seeing any need to drag Ryuji into their argument, which would probably lead to many questions neither of them had the answer to. Like _why are you arguing over a cat in the first place?_

Ryuji took Morgana from Goro once he extended his arms to offer him the heavy feline. The blond sauntered back to his room with Mona, wishing them both goodnight even though it was likely he and Akira would see each other again later in the night considering their sleep schedules.

“I guess I’ll go to bed now,” Goro said before yawning on cue.

“Goro,” Akira smiled endearingly as he leaned against the doorframe, drawling out his name like he was saying it just to say it.

“Hm?” Goro raised an eyebrow, feeling himself instinctively drifting closer to Akira like he was caught in his orbit.

“Goodnight,” he spoke with a low voice, the corner of his lip raising in a smirk as Goro blinked like Akira had just told him life-changing news instead of a single word.

“G-goodnight,” Goro stammered, taking one final look at how Akira looked in the dim lights he had strung in his room behind him, his warm smile being the last thing Goro saw before spinning on his heels to hurry across the hall into his own room.

When he called Ann before bed, the line was busy.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

Goro woke up during the early hours of dawn out of habit, no cat asleep in his bed unlike the last few mornings that he’s awoken to Morgana purring next to him. It wasn’t like not having a cat close by while he slept caused him to have a completely restless night perse, but he wondered how Akira could give up the cat with no complaint after growing used to Morgana’s presence each night for years.

The emptiness of the common area was enough evidence that no one else was awake yet. Goro planned to spend his Saturday finishing his critical thinking essay and start reading the upcoming chapter in his chemistry textbook to begin getting a hang of the math in this unit so he could relax and drink wine tonight with his friends without assignments causing him stress. 

But while he wanted to get started on his day as soon as possible, Goro didn’t go straight for the coffee machine that morning, figuring it's worth waiting for Akira to wake up to make his coffee instead of Goro fumbling with his basic skills.

Speaking of Akira, there oddly wasn’t a Mona plush outside Goro’s door that morning.

Maybe Akira had simply forgotten to put one there before he went to bed last night. Or maybe Akira decided that Goro’s constant resistance wasn’t worth his time and gave up on trying to get him to cave. Not that it mattered or anything.

But he still felt… disappointed that Akira would give up so soon.

Goro turned around to check the area in front of his bedroom again, just in case he merely missed a cat toy by his door and all his overthinking was for nothing, but while he sadly wasn’t met with any Mona merch, he was unexpectedly met with something else in the hallway instead. 

Akira himself was wrapped in a comforter that Goro recognized from his bed, awake before 5 A.M. as he quietly tip-toed across the hall from his room to the front of Goro’s door while trying not to raise awareness of himself. Akira’s eyes met his gaze and he instantly turned to face Goro, panic on his face that he was trying to play off as casual despite quickly moving his hands behind his back to hide something.

“Goro!” Akira choked out a (failed) attempt at sounding non-suspicious. “You’re up early!” Akira put on a fake smile that was too wide to be natural as he tried to divert attention away from himself, nearly sweating from how bad his acting was as he kept his hands behind his back.

“This is when I wake up,” Goro deadpanned in return, clearly skeptical of why _Akira_ was awake at this time.

“Heh,” Akira breathed out a pathetic laugh as he began slowly stepping away from Goro’s room and back to his own. “Me too. A-as of today.”

Akira didn’t remove his eyes from Goro as he took carefully calculated steps in retreat. Goro released an impatient huff, rolling his eyes before stomping toward Akira at a normal pace to quickly catch up with him.

“Give it to me,” Goro demanded, holding out his hand for Akira to give him the daily Morgana plush he had behind his back.

Akira darted his eyes around the hall, looking for any excuse to escape Goro’s glare before releasing a nervous breath as he refocused his attention on the exasperated brunette.

“I-I don’t have anything…”

“ _Akira._ ”

Akira eyed him, looking like he was going to further deny having anything on his person until after a moment when his panicked expression softened into acceptance. A smirk dangerously lit up Akira’s face as Goro patiently waited, trying to maintain his look of disinterest despite Akira suddenly grinning from ear-to-ear.

“I thought you didn’t want them?” Akira sang teasingly without yet removing the plush from behind his back.

Goro scoffed, shooting a tired glare at Akira who seemed to have a lot of nerve even before 5 A.M. “I don’t.”

Akira raised an eyebrow with amusement, a pleased smile on his face as he watched Goro’s frown deepen. “So you don’t want me to give it to you?” 

“If you’re just going to leave it by my door later _anyway,”_ Goro huffed, begrudgingly holding out a hand to take the toy, “then you might as well just give it to me now.”

Akira’s bold smile remained in place despite Goro’s irritation, handing his roommate the plush Mona toy and appearing more satisfied by the second. “Will you take this one to work, too, Goro?” 

The Mona that Akira handed him looked handcrafted, a soft plushie that stood on four legs and was designed to be more realistic than the other stuffed cats Akira had given him so far. Goro took the plush in his hand and brought Morgana’s knitted face closer to his, examining the blue eyes and the whiskers protruding from the cute plushie.

“No,” Goro answered Akira’s teasing quip truthfully, mainly because he was going to Shiho and Hifumi’s apartment straight after work and didn’t want them to ask why his bag was full of Morgana toys. “My closet.”

“No!” Akira suddenly cried out, flinging himself against Goro as if that would somehow stop him. “They like seeing the city!”

Goro briefly looked away from the plush in his hands to squint at his roommate that was desperately attaching himself to him before glancing away from Akira to resume his critical examination of the stitched cat. “I don’t tell you how to parent _your_ Monas. They’re in my custody now.”

“They need natural light to live,” Akira begged, his hands still resting on Goro’s arms as he slouched his upper body in exasperation. “Think of the kitties, Goro!”

Goro laughed at Akira’s desperation that seemed too genuine to not be somewhat serious. “If you make some coffee I might consider what you have to say about plushie care,” he sang, offering Akira a small smile that he hoped would be considered cute. 

Akira laughed as he ruffled a hand in Goro’s hair before detaching himself from his roommate’s personal space entirely, stepping away from Goro and slowly walking backwards into the kitchen with a pleased smile glued to his features. “You’re too easy.”

Goro scoffed. “ _You’re_ too easy,” he shouted back at his fleeing roommate before taking the stitched cat into his room to decide a place to put it for the time being.

He ended up placing the stitched Mona on his window sill, fitting the toy cat snugly against the window that was beginning to light up with the early morning sky. 

“Don’t get too comfortable,” he told the inanimate cat staring up at him from its temporary spot as he reached for his book bag to empty it, taking out the two Mona orbs and the pink Valentine’s Mona to place them on the sill next to the stitched cat. The Morgana pillow was seated on the edge of his bed, watching Goro as he moved to sit at his desk to start working on his essay. 

If asked, Goro thought, he would say his plan is to give all the Morgana plushies to Ann when she returns from the states. 

After a few minutes of essay revision, Akira delivered a warm cup of coffee to Goro’s room while sipping happily on his own mug, his eyes sleepy as Goro took the Mona mug from a smiling Akira.

They sipped their coffee in a comfortable silence, taking a moment to wake up together as Akira hovered next to Goro’s desk with a smile that was warmer than the coffee. 

Goro thought maybe the stuffed cats newly decorating his window sill weren’t so bad after all.

* * *

“Goroooooo!” 

A whiny shout came from down the hall, muffled by Goro’s closed door while he was concentrating on his chapter on quantum mechanics after finishing the final draft of his essay. As he read, he thought that if a section needed a preface about how even the scientists who developed the base theories for the subject never fully understood it, then he shouldn’t be expected to have to memorize two entire chapters on the topic within less than a month.

He sighed as his brain tried to shift out of studying mode so he could answer Akira’s call that was yelled from within the walls of his own room. Goro shut his eyes before standing for the first time in a few hours, checking the time on his still-open laptop and seeing it was just past noon, and he still had a decent amount of time before having to leave for his shift later in the afternoon.

Goro hurried out of his room when he heard Akira, _again,_ wailing his name like an abandoned toddler, crossing the hall to get to Akira’s Mona-shrine of a room. 

“What?” Goro demanded as he entered without knocking. Akira immediately turned to face him in his chair from where he was sitting at his desk in front of his monitor, smiling gleefully at Goro’s harsh greeting and running a hand along Morgana’s fur from where the cat was napping on the back of his chair.

“Come look at this,” Akira beckoned Goro further into his room as he turned his head to look back at the monitor, adjusting his dark headset adorned with cat ears and rainbow lights atop his messy hair. Goro approached the screen to see what was so important that Akira couldn’t wait until after his studying to show him.

“Cat in a sweater vest,” Akira explained, smugly pointing a finger toward the screen to let the picture do the talking. 

It was, in fact, a cat in a sweater vest.

“Very nice,” Goro commented leisurely as he looked at the orange cat in a perfectly-sized sweater vest. His eyes travelled along the other contents of the screen that weren’t taken up by the cat photo, realization setting in as he suddenly felt nerves bubbling inside of him. “A-Akira, are you streaming?”

“I am,” Akira confirmed with a curt nod and a smug grin, and even though Akira likely noticed Goro’s eyes widening as he started to overthink, he didn’t comment on the panic blooming on the brunette’s features as he continued with what he was doing. “I’m just going through my subreddit right now, though,” he casually shrugged.

Goro huffed, throwing a hand over his face to cover his embarrassing blush that was spreading over his skin for the entire live audience to see. “I can’t believe you do this as a job.”

It wasn’t Goro’s first time being on one of his roommates’ streams, but there was always an uncomfortable air when it came to being in front of an audience that was entirely invested in someone else and had absolutely no interest in him. It made Goro feel like a burden.

“You could too,” Akira hummed as he looked up at Goro’s hand hiding his face. “If you wanted to.”

“I don’t want to,” came Goro’s muffled reply.

“You haven’t even tried it,” Akira whined persistently as he pulled Goro’s hand away to see his furiously red face. “Futaba’s coming over tomorrow to open Yugioh cards with me and Ryuji if you wanna join us.”

Without his hand to hide behind, Goro was able to see Akira’s face tilted up and looking at him with wide, pleading eyes, like making sure that Goro felt included was his roommate’s top priority.

“I.. don’t know…” Goro answered hesitantly, not very eager to have to be in front of a live audience of Akira’s fans again, but also not wanting to witness disappointment wash over Akira’s hopeful smile. He also had an unsettling thought that Akira’s described scenario is the only situation where it would be embarrassing to know too _little_ about Yugioh.

“At least answer some chat questions while you’re here,” Akira insisted, tugging on Goro’s wrist to pull him closer to the screen and, incidentally, closer to Akira’s face as well. Akira grinned at him in their proximity, and Goro could practically feel the heat radiating off Akira’s warm smile before he shot him a wink and redirected his eyes to the monitor. 

“Get me some subscribers, honey.”

Goro tried to ignore his deepening blush as he squinted at the messages flying quickly across the chat littered with incomprehensible emoticons, mostly Akira’s custom emotes of Morgana and inside jokes from past streams. He watched the screen with furrowed eyebrows as he tried to find messages containing actual words in the colorful chat, some users even had Mona badges next to their names amongst the spammed phrases and emotes.

> **splayedcat_x:** mona yawned at exactly 12:32:06 pm  
>  **z_gameplays:** joker when will you play solar 2 again T-T  
>  **SKU11:** GOROOO LMAO HEY DUDE  
>  **monamonaluvr:** did anyone else see mona’s yawn  
>  **blood4blood:** oracle has joker addicted to yugioh cards now lol  
>  **lordgoat2:** i want to subscribe but im 9  
>  **SKU11:** CAN U BRING OREOS TO MY ROOM  
>  **m4rtyy7:** is morgana purring rn  
>  **sumi___:** hi goro! how are you?  
>  **not8a8bot:** this guy looks like a chess streamer  
>  **seinfeld2004:** the freaking cat yawned  
>  **digitalstriker:** what the fuck.  
>  **50pairsofsocks:** morganananananana  
>  **sumi___:** what is pog?  
>  **b0rn_x_al0ne:** is this the mean roommate  
>  **SKU11:** I KNOW U SEE THIS GORO  
> 

“Someone asked if I’m your _’mean roommate,’”_ Goro pulled away from the computer to shoot a glare at Akira. “What have you been saying about me?”

A laugh escaped his lips as he met Goro’s uneasy eyes. “I’ve never said anything bad about you, ever.”

Goro hummed, only partially suspicious considering he had no actual reason to worry about what Akira’s said about him. He let his expression soften, shifting his weight away from the monitor to watch as Akira flashed him a devious smile.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that if you want to get me at least one subscriber, Goro,” Akira sang, taunting him with unbreakable confidence that nearly made Goro scoff at his audacity.

So Goro used his ultimate weapon: the cat peacefully napping on the back of Akira’s chair.

He merely raised an eyebrow at Akira’s challenge before delivering a pet to Morgana’s soft fur to wake him up, followed by the cat’s adorable meow and a cute stretch after receiving attention from Goro for the first time all day. Morgana purred against his hand as Goro pet him, and the cat meowed for a second time, a mix of happiness and probably hunger considering how much Mona liked to eat.

“Fuck,” he heard Akira mutter from where he sat, sighing in disappointment that his plan to make Goro interact with the chat didn’t work. “Thanks for the tier 1, loonavelvet.”

Goro beamed proudly at his successful mission, the smile staying on his face as he shifted his eyes from Morgana already fast asleep again to grin at the mess of dark hair sitting at the desk. Akira gave in to offer a warm smile in return, and Goro suddenly felt like his heart was about to jump out of his chest and onto Akira’s desk for his entire live audience to see– oh _fuck,_ Akira was still live.

The increase of adrenaline in Goro’s bloodstream made him almost worry that he would pop like a balloon if that were possible, feeling his breath hitch as his hand that was petting Morgana froze in its place.

“R-Ryuji said he wanted Oreos,” Goro said stiffly, swallowing the lump in his throat as he began slowly walking backwards to reach Akira’s door.

“I can make a real lunch for you guys,” Akira offered as Goro retreated.

“We can manage,” Goro squeaked out a response, smiling awkwardly at Akira to hopefully show his gratitude anyway before bolting out the door.

He would have just immediately gone back to his room to resume his studying, but he sighed as he remembered that just Ryuji just saw Goro use him as an excuse for his escape, so he trudged to the kitchen with a groan to retrieve the Oreos for his roommate.

* * *

Goro didn’t end up eating a real lunch before leaving for work. Not purposefully, the thought just slipped his mind with all his studying until he lost track of time.

He warmed up a panini once he arrived at Frostbucks later in the afternoon, receiving a side-eye from Naoto but no comment as Goro took the sandwich to the break room before his shift was scheduled to start.

He was stopped by Shinya as soon as he left the main restaurant area, his young coworker standing as tall as he could to block Goro from going any further. Goro stood just outside the doorway with his bag slung over his shoulder, sighing as he waited for Shinya to get on with it, the kid somehow managing to test Goro’s patience without even speaking yet.

“I want vampire Mona,” Shinya explained languidly, ignoring as Goro’s scowl continued to deepen. “The one from last Halloween.”

Goro didn’t react, his annoyed expression remaining unchanged at the teenager’s demand.

“Really?” Goro sharply exhaled to signify his impatience. “No _good morning, Goro?_ No _sorry for so rudely interrupting your dinner, Goro?”_

Shinya shifted awkwardly in place. “You told me not to call you that.”

“That’s not the– _ugh,”_ Goro groaned as he shouldered the kid out of the way (something he should have done to begin with) to actually get past him and into the break room. “I’m not giving you anything.”

Shinya deflated, flailing his arms pathetically as he slouched his shoulders with a pout. “You said you would!”

“I lied,” Goro hissed, irritated that this kid really thought his bribe was in earnest.

“Dude,” Shinya breathed out a sad, defeated sigh. “Not cool.”

Goro scoffed at his co-worker’s nerve to act so disappointed when _he_ was the one lacking manners, Goro would _not_ fall for Shinya’s performance. 

“You interrupted us in the first place,” Goro scolded. “Why would I reward you for that?”

“I just wanted to talk to him,” Shinya whined dejectedly, looking up at Goro with wide, puppy-dog eyes as though he was defending himself from a lecturing parent. 

And maybe Goro was becoming weak, because he felt his resolve vanishing as he looked at the pathetic sight of the teenager slumped over in sadness over a stupid cat toy. 

“ _Fine,”_ Goro huffed as he watched a beam light up Shinya’s face. “But I can’t guarantee you the exact one you want, so don’t get your hopes up. I... don’t know how he gets them.”

“T-that’s fine!” his coworker stuttered, somewhat off-guard from Goro’s sudden decision change. Shinya had a distant, starstruck smile glued to his face as he imagined all the potential Monas that Goro had access to, it was completely different from how Goro was used to seeing the usually bratty kid. “I can’t believe you actually know him.”

Goro dropped his bag on the table and sat down in one of the chairs so he could actually eat his lunch before his shift. 

“You know,” Goro turned to face the teenager as he unwrapped his panini, “when most people meet someone they’re a fan of, they tend to compliment them rather than insult them.”

Shinya scoffed, his usual blunt self back to normal as he spun around to head back into the restaurant.

“He needed to hear it.”

* * *

Shiho and Hifumi’s apartment wasn’t too far from Goro’s own, tucked within walking distance of its own corner of the Shibuya neighborhoods. Work had been unbearably boring, and Goro developed a headache with how little he had to eat that day, excited to finally get to relax with some charcuterie and wine with the girls.

Goro let himself in with the key he had to their apartment, his _plain_ spare key, unlike the pink and glittery spare that Ann had made for herself. The charms on Goro’s keychain were loud enough on their own, thank you.

They turned on a home decorating show as they downed glasses of wine together, sitting at the kotatsu by the tv while they painted each other’s nails happily. Until they got to their second bottle of wine, that is, and Shiho started to get emotional about missing Ann.

And once it started, it was practically impossible to stop. 

The channel they were watching, clearly aimed at middle-aged housewives, switched from the home decorating show to a baking show, and the frosted desserts were enough to make a drunk Shiho have tears begin welling in her eyes.

“It’s been less than a week!” she sobbed while she distressedly flung her glass of wine around in her hand, causing some of the red beverage to spill onto the floor until Hifumi managed to rest her hand on her friend’s wrist to stop her from ruining their carpet. “I don’t get why Ann can’t just take pictures here. They made green screens for a reason!”

Shiho wasn’t usually much of a sad drunk, only if something was upsetting her when she was sober as well. She would usually become more animated when she drank and would act bubbly to the point of mimicking Ann, the complete opposite of the mellow, sober Shiho that was shy around everyone she wasn’t close with.

So it was obvious how truly distressed Shiho was over Ann’s absence despite their consistent phone calls they had whenever the difference in time zones would allow for it. This was one of the many trips Ann has taken for work since the two girls started their relationship early in the year, and Shiho had quickly grown used to putting on a supportive face for her girlfriend by never letting Ann see her loneliness when she was away.

But now Shiho’s resolve was finally breaking with the help of a healthy amount of wine.

“I just..” she buried her flushed face into the palms of her hands and let out a frustrated groan. “You know, lately I’ve been.. internally playing around with the idea of the two of us getting an apartment together.”

Gasps came from both Goro and Hifumi out of surprise and excitement, but Shiho cut them off before they could voice any encouragements. 

“But what would be the point when she’s never even in Tokyo for a full month at a time?” she sobbed, tears leaking from her bloodshot eyes as she drained the last of the wine in her glass before picking up the open bottle to chug more. “It’ll have been a year soon! If she was as serious about this as I am then wouldn’t she want to start settling down?”

“Shiho,” Hifumi comforted, rubbing a hand on her crying roommate’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Hifumi was more of a mellow drunk compared to Shiho’s usual bubbliness, a lightweight that tended to reach her peak of wildness when she and Goro discussed political theory after a few glasses. 

“Of course she’s serious about this,” Goro reassured Shiho to no avail.

“I don’t want her to feel like I’m controlling her just because I want her to stay home,” Shiho’s words were slurred as her shoulders slumped in on herself. “It’s her job! And she wouldn’t travel if she didn’t want to, so obviously she _wants_ to do it, and I don’t want to stop her from doing things she _wants to do!”_

Goro and Hifumi shared an exasperated look after listening to their friend say all that in one breath, completely baffled that Shiho could be nearly a year deep into a relationship and still be so dumb about some things. 

“She likes travelling, but definitely not for work,” Goro offered another pointless attempt at making Shiho come to her senses. “I’m sure you’ve heard most of the same complaints that I have.”

“And what would Hifumi do if I moved out?!” Shiho continued, ignoring her friends’ concerns in her unreasonable state of mind.

“Are you serious?” Hifumi cracked up in laughter, but quickly quieted her giggles to not make Shiho’s nerves any worse. “This isn’t about me, Shiho. I could just find another roommate.”

“You could take Ann’s room,” Goro pointed out before stealing the bottle of wine out of Shiho’s grip to pour himself another glass.

Hifumi fully laughed at that, and _apparently_ what Goro said was funny enough to cause Shiho to start laughing as well despite the tears streaming down her face.

“What?” Goro demanded, frustrated over not being in on whatever the joke was. “If Ann moves out we’ll need a new roommate too.”

“If Ann moves out there’s no way you guys will sign next year’s lease,” Hifumi explained like it was completely obvious.

Goro eyed the two girls suspiciously. “Why wouldn’t we?”

“I mean..” Shiho began, only to bust up in laughter _again._ At least she had stopped crying.

“You two already live together..” Hifumi filled in with a singing voice, but still somehow managed to not clear up any of Goro’s confusion.

“Us two..?”

Were they still talking about Ann?

“Akira!” Shiho squealed, her drunken bubbliness suddenly coming out in her endless fits of giggling. “If Ann moves out, that leaves Ryuji with you two. And even if Hifumi _did_ take Ann’s room–”

Hifumi snorted loudly at another mention of such a _ridiculous_ idea.

“– _no one_ will want to live with you and Akira once you guys start sucking face all the time.”

Goro’s skin immediately turned bright red from a blush absorbing his face, sputtering momentarily before quickly readjusting himself to glare fiercely at his two giggling friends. “We will _not-”_

Shiho’s loud gasp cut him off as she quickly stood up with her phone in hand. 

“Ann’s calling!” she announced excitedly like she was a teenager with a helpless crush on the model and wasn’t said model’s serious girlfriend. 

Shiho ran out of the room to have privacy as she accepted the call, leaving Goro alone with Hifumi raising an eyebrow in amusement. 

“Just so you know,” Hifumi began as she redirected her amused gaze to face Goro, “I _would_ move in with you. But…”

“Don’t.”

“You two are just…”

“I said stop.”

“You’re kind of like…”

“Hifumi,” Goro spoke loud enough to actually make his friend stop talking, her eyelids widening somewhat as her train of thought was interrupted. “I don’t know what it is that makes you two think I have a crush on him, especially when I complain about him literally _all the time.”_

Hifumi hummed as she processed his words that he hoped were convincing enough. She studied him curiously, swirling her red wine around in her glass until a soft smile made its way onto her face.

“But that’s exactly it,” she voiced fondly after a second, sitting up so she was kneeling on the floor and now capable of towering over Goro. “You _always_ complain about him. You’re kind of like his wife.”

“Wh-what are you even saying?” Goro hissed, shooting a glare at his smiling friend as he tried to ignore the way he felt his stomach twist. 

It must still be from hunger. Obviously.

At that moment, Shiho came running back into the living room after finishing her call with Ann, shouting Hifumi’s name as rushed to sit back down with her hands in her lap.

“You covered Goro’s shift last night, right ‘Fumi?” Shiho asked excitedly, sitting with perfect posture to contain herself before dropping her bombshell. 

“Yeah, I covered for him,” Hifumi answered warily as she waited for Shiho’s explanation. 

“Did you ask him _why?”_ Shiho asked with an evil look in her eyes as they talked about Goro like he wasn’t in the room anymore.

“Um...” Hifumi drawled out uncertainly. “He said something about Akira?”

Shiho practically squealed out of excitement, unable to keep her news secret any longer. 

“They went on a date last night!”

She blurted it out quickly, nodding as she watched Hifumi’s eyes pop out of her head in surprise. Hifumi’s shocked gaze landed on Goro to see no sign of similar excitement on his own face, not reacting as he stared blankly at his friends.

“Whatever Ann told you,” he spoke seriously to Shiho, clearly pronouncing each word to make her understand him, his eyes burning holes into her head. “It wasn’t true. It was _not_ a date.”

Shiho’s smugness didn’t falter, unlike Hifumi who was darting her curious eyes between the two of them as she waited for the next move. 

“Akira told her it was a date,” Shiho responded matter-of-factly. “And he told her that _you_ said you want to go on more dates.”

Hifumi gasped quietly, shock covering her features before she burst into a fit of giggles and hiccups. “Oh my god,” she laughed as she wiped a tear from her eye. “Goro, you’re already dating him.”

“That’s _not_ what happened,” he grumbled under his breath as he exhaustedly rubbed his temples. “He didn’t even ask me on a date. He just...” 

Goro’s voice sounded less frustrated as he trailed off in thought, his eyes distant as he tried to actually make sense of the whole situation. 

“He said it was just to celebrate my exam grade,” Goro tried to prevent his voice from sounding disappointed while Hifumi hummed as she considered the new information, but Shiho’s confidence remained despite Goro’s doubt. 

“Ann said he almost _kissed you–”_

“–But he didn’t–” 

“–and that he got you _flowers,”_ Shiho argued, emphasizing each fact she heard from Ann as if her girlfriend was an all-knowing reliable source. 

“He only got those because he went shopping with Haru,” Goro sighed exhaustedly, not even arguing with his friends anymore and just listing information to try to decipher Akira’s motives. “She probably dragged him to a flower shop to get something for Niijima and he thought that bouquet was pretty.”

“Did he give them to you?” Hifumi asked curiously.

Goro blinked. “Maybe..?” 

Both Hifumi and Shiho groaned loudly at his hesitant answer. “Do I have to call Ann back?” Shiho asked seriously, already pulling out her phone in preparation.

“No!” Goro protested as soon as the sentence left her mouth. “I… can figure this out myself.”

He’s not _that_ much of an idiot. 

Probably.

“Goro,” Shiho spoke his name seriously, eying him like she was trying to read his thoughts. “You _do_ want to date him, right?”

Goro felt his heart rate begin to speed up as the two girls looked at him with intrigue, the muscle pounding against his chest as he flicked his gaze down to look at his hands in his lap as he thought it over. 

Really, Goro didn’t have to think it over, his contemplation was mostly over whether or not he was ready to admit it. 

“I.. do,” he eventually answered, his eyelids gently closing shut to rest his lashes against his cheekbones. 

Goro exhaled as he opened his eyes again to see his friends both sending him encouraging smiles, as well as relief covering their features as though his confession truly gave them peace of mind. He sighed at their comforting smiles, contrasting their happy expressions as his eyes drooped back down to his lap. 

“I really do.” 

“That’s good,” Hifumi chimed, her gaze softening as she comforted her second friend of the night. “Because I still think you’re already dating him.” 

They eventually got to their third bottle of wine as they continued to marathon the baking show for a few more hours. Goro ended up taking the short walk home despite the girls offering the couch, the idea of sleeping in his own bed so much more appealing for his spine that he managed to safely haul himself home with his bed in mind.

* * *

It turned out that refusing the girls’ couch didn’t make a difference on Goro’s back, in the end, because when he woke up the next morning in his apartment, he realized that he wasn’t in his bed, but on his own couch in his living room that he apparently passed out on as soon as he got home. 

The sound of his phone blaring had startled him awake early in the morning, picking it up with his eyes still glued shut before managing to open his eyelids, seeing that he only got three hours of sleep before being so rudely disturbed by Makoto Niijima calling him before sunrise.

“What?” Goro demanded as he answered the phone, not in any sort of mood to deal with Niijima at the worst possible time of day. He wasn’t too keen on dealing with her at any time of day, really. 

“I’m so, _so_ sorry,” she began, sounding nearly on the verge of tears on the other end. “I know you usually have Sundays off, but I…” 

Niijima paused to sniffle, a rare instance of the law student’s tough demeanor breaking, something Goro wasn’t used to hearing at all. “I was supposed to work this morning, but I just feel too weak.”

“You’re asking me to cover for you?” Goro questioned slowly, his bitterness vanishing as he listened to the sound of his manager crying through the static of the phone call. 

“I-if you wouldn’t mind,” she nearly begged. “I need a competent barista today considering the newbie is scheduled for opening.”

Her voice in itself sounded weak, and Goro felt genuine concern for her given her busy schedule involving work and her boatload of classes. Sometimes Goro wondered if she so often pushed herself beyond her limits for the sake of someone else that had too high expectations for a college student. He wasn’t even going to question out loud why she keeps scheduling their barista with the least amount of experience for their busiest shifts of the day.

“I can cover,” he agreed, holding back a sigh realizing he would have to be in Shinjuku in less than half an hour. “Have you eaten recently, Makoto?”

When Goro was overwhelmed by schoolwork, he would often forget to take care of himself as he got lost in concentration, something that his coworker probably did as well and was most likely the cause of her weakness along with the mental stress that was already consuming her.

“I don’t remember,” she answered eventually, though at least it sounded like her tears had stopped. 

“Make sure you eat breakfast today.”

He hung up without saying goodbye, taking a deep breath as he ran a hand over his face before setting his phone on the coffee table. It was then that he noticed the blanket that was draped over him, one that he hadn’t fallen asleep with when he got home the night prior. 

And of course, the blanket had Morgana’s face repeatedly knitted into the cloth like tapestry.

Goro shot out of his warm cocoon with sudden realization, sprinting down the hall to knock rapidly on Akira’s door. He was probably in a deep sleep considering his lack of response, not even a sleepy groan telling Goro to leave him alone, so Goro entered his room to shake him awake.

“Akira,” Goro murmured as he gently shook the sleeping boy.

“Hrmph.”

“Akira,” Goro repeated louder this time, shaking his shoulders again as Akira nuzzled his head further against his pillow, Morgana at his side sleeping soundly as well. “I need something from you.”

Akira slowly opened a sleepy eyelid so Goro could see one of his dark irises, looking up at him from where he laid face-down against his pillow.

“Whaddya need, Goro?” he mumbled, the heavy sleepiness in his voice causing him to slur his words.

“Do you have vampire Mona? From last Halloween?”

Akira’s tired brain took a moment to process the question as he struggled to stay awake, his eyelids fluttering shut before he mumbled something unintelligible against his pillow. Goro impatiently shook him awake again, and Akira groaned as he rolled onto his side to squint up at his roommate.

“You need it _right now?”_

Goro smiled. “Yes, right now.”

“Mmph,” Akira dropped his head against his pillow again, his heavy eyes falling shut.

“Akira,” Goro snapped his fingers in Akira’s face as he watched him begin to drift off. “Do you have it?”

“Think so,” he mumbled tiredly into his pillow, his eyes tightly shut as sleep started to take over.

Goro grabbed a handful of dark locks, fully waking up Akira by pulling his head full of messy hair off his pillow. Akira let out a surprised shriek as Goro yanked his hair, glaring at the brunette once he was sitting up in his bed.

“ _Yes,_ I have it, Goro,” Akira huffed once he was slightly more coherent. “I have every Mona that exists. You want it?”

“It’s not for me,” Goro explained, watching as Akira yawned and stretched his limbs like a cat. “It’s for that kid I work with. The one who interrupted us at dinner. He asked for that one specifically.” 

Goro rubbed the back of his neck as he waited for Akira’s reaction, suddenly feeling hesitant that his roommate might not agree to give up the plushie if Goro was going to give it to some random stranger. He watched as Akira’s sleepy expression didn’t change, somewhat worried that he had somehow fallen asleep with his eyes open, and Goro’s sudden panic began to increase.

“B-but I told him not to get too hopeful, so if you don’t want to give it to me, that’s fine!”

A smile crept its way onto Akira’s face, a small, satisfied quirk of his lips that was still unbearably charming even when he was only half-awake. 

“So, let me get this straight,” he started, his smile widening by the second as he processed Goro’s explanation. “You promised your coworker that you’d get him the specific Mona plush he wanted _just_ because he’s a fan of me?”

Goro blinked at the sly grin spreading on his roommate’s face, his eyebrows pinching as Akira looked at him like he just won the lottery. “He was more forceful than that, but yes.”

Akira was fully beaming after Goro’s confirmation, his sleepy eyes and messy bed-hair making the pleased expression even more precious. 

“Let me find it!” 

Akira threw off his blankets as he jumped out of bed, waking Morgana momentarily before the cat fell right back asleep. He rummaged through his Mona-shrine of a room with a sudden burst of energy until he finally found the plushie he was looking for. 

“One vampire Mona,” Akira announced, holding the stuffed cat with both of his hands as he presented the toy to Goro.

“You’re really fine with giving me this?” Goro asked warily, just in case this specific Mona was a prized possession Akira didn’t want to give up.

“Of course,” he smiled sweetly as he moved the vampire Mona closer to Goro for him to take. “I have an endless supply.”

Goro accepted the toy, a Mona that had red eyes and blood droplets decorating its fangs, along with a mischievous smile that was too adorable to be evil. 

“Why are you awake right now?” Akira asked after Goro thanked him, confusion washing over his sleepy face like it took him this long to realize exactly how early it was. His eyes suddenly widened with shock. “Wait, is it Monday?”

Goro shook his head, the corner of his lip raising in an amused half-smile. “It’s Sunday. And I’m going to work.”

“What?” Akira deflated with disappointment. “ _Whyyyyy?_ ”

“It’s only for a few hours,” Goro raised his eyebrows at the sleepy boy’s antics as a breathy laugh escaped him. “You wouldn't have even known I was gone if I didn’t wake you.”

“Work still sucks,” Akira insisted, a faint smile appearing on his face as he shifted onto his back foot to analyze Goro. “At least let me make you coffee while I’m up.”

Goro quickly checked the time on his phone, seeing that he’s already running short on how much longer he has until he has to leave for work, but Akira was sending him a hopeful look that he couldn’t bring himself to say no to. “If you hurry.”

Akira beamed at him before rushing to his bedroom door, stopping to glance back one more time before leaving for the kitchen.

“Anything for you, Goro~” he sang with an exaggerated wink before leaving Goro alone in his room.

Goro released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, staring at Morgana asleep on the bed as he tried to ignore how much his head was spinning just from the way his name had sounded when it was said with Akira’s sleepy voice.

* * *

Goro had to take Akira’s coffee with him to Shinjuku in a tumbler, having barely made his train to be on time for the opening shift at Frostbucks. The sun was rising over an unsaturated foggy sky as Goro exited the Shinjuku station, taking occasional sips of his warm coffee as he hurried through the mostly empty streets. 

The soft yellow light of the early sun reflected in the glass windows of the store when Goro arrived at work, noticing that the doors were already unlocked as he tightened his arm around his bag to walk in. The warm air of the interior hit his cold skin as he laid his eyes upon two familiar faces staring back at him.

“You too, huh?” Shiho said monotonously, an unimpressed look on her face as she stood exhaustedly next to Hifumi who looked just as outworn.

“Makoto was sick,” Goro explained without dwelling too much if he looked just as hungover as his friends. “You?”

“Yukiko was scheduled even though she’s out of town for the weekend,” Hifumi muttered bitterly. “Apparently I’m the only person she could get a hold of.”

“Chie for me,” Shiho slumped as she released a dramatic sigh. “She said she had an important bowling tournament she couldn’t miss.”

“Chie bowls?” Hifumi pondered as she pictured the mental image, confusion washing over her exhausted face.

“At 5 in the morning?” Goro raised an eyebrow at the two sleepy girls behind the counter. Seems like they all needed more caffeine.

“Oh,” Shiho chimed in realization as Goro joined them on the other side of the bar. “Now that I think about it, that probably was a lie.”

A loud commotion burst through the doors when Goro was busy pouring coffee for the three of them, looking up to see Shinya muttering apologies about barely making it in time for opening. Hifumi and Shiho had already finished the morning preparations, leaving only a few minutes to spare before they would officially open for the day and the raid of early morning customers would start to flood in.

“Kid,” Goro called out to Shinya, following him into the back room where he was setting his things and putting on his wrinkled apron. Shinya turned around just in time to catch the Mona plush that Goro threw his way before it hit his face. 

“Don’t expect anything else from me.”

Shinya stared at the plushie as he moved it around in his hands, a content smile slowly forming on his face as he looked back up at Goro. 

“I saw you on stream,” he said, instead of something normal like _thank you._ “You looked ridiculous.”

Goro placed a hand on his hip, scoffing while he stared down at his short coworker across the room. “Every time I’ve been on stream Akira has said I’m a natural.”

“He lied,” Shinya refuted without missing a beat.

“He–” Goro took a deep breath to prevent himself from getting heated before having to put on his best customer service face in a few minutes. “He didn’t _lie._ I can tell when he’s lying.”

Shinya rolled his eyes, his face expressionless. “He was flirting with you then.”

Goro clenched his fist by his side, momentarily wishing he kept the vampire Mona plush so he could have something to squeeze. 

“Maybe I was actually _good at it,”_ Goro huffed. “Did you consider _that?”_

Before Shinya could embarrass himself further by saying that Goro actually wasn’t good at it (a blatant _lie,_ by the way), Shiho popped her head into the break room, her long ponytail falling to the side as she informed them that it was time to officially open.

The number of customers coming and going increased as time went on until midmorning, when the rush of workers craving early coffee before work had mostly died down. Goro’s shift wouldn’t last for too much longer, thankfully, and the headache from his hangover was starting to fade after he had a few cups of water. 

He felt dread overcome him, however, when a familiar head of strawberry blonde hair entered the cafe, and purple eyes were suddenly staring at Goro from across the register. 

“Akechi-kun!” Chihaya greeted him with a satisfied smile, wrapped in a purple scarf to keep her warm amongst the autumn morning chill. “I had a feeling you would be here right now. I sensed your internal struggle.”

“He’s always internally struggling,” Shiho snorted as she suddenly appeared next to him to raise a suspicious eyebrow at Chihaya. “How do you know Goro, lady?” 

Goro sent a look of prayer to the woman across the counter in desperate hope that she would stay quiet. But unfortunately, it was to no avail.

“I did a reading for him earlier in the week,” she remarked with a polite smile before lowering her eyes, her smile replaced with a perplexed look. She glanced up at Goro again after a moment, humming in consideration as she eyed him from across the register. 

“ _You_ did his tarot reading?” Hifumi gasped, sprinting up to Goro’s side and trapping him between Shiho on his other. “I was begging him to tell me what the results were but he ‘forgot,’” she muttered the word with air quotes and an eye roll to signify her disbelief.

“I did do a reading for him,” Chihaya nodded before tilting her head to the side, raising a curious eyebrow at Hifumi. “You can read cards?”

“I-I just know their meanings,” Hifumi stammered, shrinking herself out of sudden nervousness. “I’m not any kind of psychic.”

“Of course you’re not,” Goro sneered at his friend next to him. “They don’t _exist.”_

“You, simultaneously, have and have not made progress,” Chihaya ignored his comment, pointing an accusatory finger at Goro as she straightened her posture like she was trying to appear more intimidating. “While that’s mostly the full extent of my knowledge, I do sense romantic troubles.”

Goro’s face quickly turned to a deep shade of red, shock momentarily overtaking his features before adjusting himself to glare harshly at the fortune teller’s studying gaze. “There is–”

“ _Romantic troubles?!”_ Shinya’s whiny voice was suddenly trembling as he rushed in from the back room with wide, concerned eyes. “You’re not fighting with Joker, are you?”

Goro heard both his friends suddenly crack up in laughter from either side of him. 

“How does he know about that?” Shiho stage-whispered through amused fits of giggles.

Shinya squinted at her as he huffily crossed his arms, clearly displeased by his older coworkers trying to not include him in the discussion. “I saw them on a date.”

Chihaya gasped as she quickly snapped her attention towards Goro, looking at him like a proud parent. “You went on a date?” 

Goro rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, not really in the mood to have to debate this again, especially not with Chihaya and Shinya.

“It… might have been a date,” Hifumi answered for him, her voice soft as she noticed his hesitance.

Chihaya hummed as she gathered her thoughts, her mesmerizing crystal eyes studying Goro with such a determination that he felt nerves bubbling under her concentrated stare. The faintest smile slowly appeared on her face once she figured out whatever answer she had been looking for. 

“Is this dilemma afflicting you so much that you might be willing to listen to the advice I offer?” Chihaya raised an eyebrow and tilted her chin back, her confidence showing in her voice as she waited for Goro’s reaction.

“Seriously?” He groaned, resting his forehead against his hand as he felt the tension of his headache returning. “You came to where I _work_ for that?”

“I want to hear it!” Hifumi nudged her shoulder further against Goro’s as she leaned closer to Chihaya’s eyesight. 

“I see you’re still being stubborn,” Chihaya sighed at Goro’s noncompliance, not sparing any attention to Hifumi’s excitement. “But I believe my words will be of great help for you.”

“Are you going to order something at least?” Goro asked, clearly exasperated.

Chihaya ordered a hot chocolate of all things, the girls sending a groaning Shinya to prepare the drink so they could encourage Chihaya to keep talking. 

“You see, Akechi-kun,” the strawberry blonde cleared her throat as she paid for her drink, a cheeky smile on her face as she looked at Goro stuck between the two girls with no choice but to listen to her wisdom. “If I were to simply tell you to speak your mind more, you would have argued that that’s too vague. Amongst other insults.” 

Goro lifted his eyes from the register to glare at Chihaya, unlike Hifumi and Shiho who were hanging onto every word. 

“So I’ll offer you a more specific task that should help you begin to understand your subconscious mind and eventually help you become less stubborn,” Chihaya continued, pausing to create suspense before revealing her suggestion. 

“If there’s one thing people don’t do enough of,” the fortune teller rested her index finger against her chin as she hummed in thought, “it’s give compliments!”

The beam that appeared on her face was incredibly naive, the genuinity of it making Goro suspect that her innocence was never as fake as he thought in the first place. 

“People always _think_ compliments about other people,” Chihaya continued after Goro didn’t respond, “but they never _say_ them out loud!”

Chihaya emphasized each word animatedly, clearly in her element when it came to giving advice. She acted bubbly and excited in a way that Goro hadn’t seen of the fortune teller yet, something that reminded him of Ann when she excitedly talked about her favorite parts of modeling, or Shiho after bottomless mimosas at brunch. 

“So next time you notice something worth complimenting, feel free to voice it, Akechi-kun!” she concluded with a smile.

Goro’s deadpan expression didn’t change in the slightest, not impressed at all by the so-called fortune teller’s mediocre advice. Shiho and Hifumi, on the other hand, were wide-eyed and blown away by Chihaya’s simple words.

“Goro, that’s what you need to do!” Hifumi exploded into a ball of energy as she shook his arm with excitement. “Just compliment Akira and see how he acts!”

“But you _can’t_ screw it up,” Shiho warned from his other side, voice serious as she gave him a threatening look. “You can’t just say a half-assed compliment with no feelings behind it.”

“You have to say something to make him _kiss you!_ ”

“Something heartfelt.”

“Don’t just say you like his shoes or something equally stupid.”

“Because then he won’t _do_ anything.”

“And you’ll never know how he feels!”

Goro was moving his head back and forth between the two girls squealing excitedly on either side of him like he was watching an extremely loud game of tennis, having no idea how they were tolerating their own noise level when they had even more to drink than he did the night prior.

His instinct was to argue that something so simple could never work, and he _definitely_ didn’t want to give Chihaya the satisfaction from admitting that her advice might actually not be that terrible. 

But… 

Goro also didn’t want to have a conversation with Akira where he has to outright ask him if they’re dating or not, because either answer would result in an unbearable awkwardness that Goro would like to avoid under any circumstances if at all possible.

So maybe his cowardice outweighed his stubbornness, but he didn’t want to hear Chihaya say she told him so because he still didn’t believe in psychics, and he could’ve probably received the same advice online if he was desperate enough.

“I compliment people a normal amount already,” Goro said, crossing his arms over his chest to the best of his ability with the two girls pressed against his sides. “I’ll just say something I probably would have told him anyway…”

Chihaya raised a wary eyebrow as he trailed off, while Hifumi and Shiho began cracking up in laughter like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard in their lives.

“Go ahead, Goro,” Hifumi lifted a hand to partially cover her mouth as she laughed. “Let’s hear how good you are at giving compliments.” 

Goro blinked at Hifumi’s amused expression, quickly trying to rack his brain for something to compliment his friend on so he could prove the girls wrong.

“Um,” he muttered. _Think, think, think._

He cleared his throat as he watched Hifumi brush her dark bangs out of her eyes, struggling to conjure any thought beyond the fact that his friend will need to have her hair trimmed soon. “You drive well?” 

Both of them started laughing even harder at his attempt, making Goro’s face burn red as he fumed.

“I was put on the spot!” he defended himself with an irritated huff. “I’ll actually have time to think about what I’ll say to Akira.”

“You’re taking my advice then?” Chihaya was chiming suddenly, the soft hopefulness of her voice contrasting to the cackles coming from Goro’s friends.

Goro sighed, figuring he might as well just take the opportunity to finally escape this exhausting conversation. 

“Fine.”

The fortune teller smiled brightly, about to say something in response, perhaps rub it in his face or simply wish him luck, but Shinya was interrupting her before she could speak. 

“I don’t think I made this right,” he said worriedly, holding up the hot chocolate that was practically all milk, the drink bar a mess behind him.

“I’ll remake it,” Goro offered, shoving his friends off him so he could finally move again to make Chihaya a new hot chocolate.

He delivered the drink to where she was standing by the bar with Hifumi talking excitedly to her, escaping from Hifumi’s rapid questions so she could give Goro parting words of good luck and inform him she sensed no misfortunes for him to stress over.

For once, Goro didn’t roll his eyes at the mention of her supposed powers.

* * *

Akira was surprisingly awake when Goro got home, walking into the common area of the apartment to see his roommate idly scrolling on his phone as he sat on the couch. Akira wasn’t alone either, Futaba was sitting at the island counter next to Ryuji, both eating cereal there rather than at the table that was currently cluttered with boxes of Yugioh cards. 

“Goro!” Futaba cheered with her mouth full of cereal once she noticed him. “It’s good to see you when you’re chill for once.”

He stared back at her with disgust, slipping off his shoes as he watched her scarf down her cereal, completely lacking any manners. Even Ryuji next to her was eating his cereal more politely than Futaba’s devouring of constant spoonfuls.

“I’m always ‘ _chill_ ,’” Goro argued defensively, the attempt an obvious failure due to how unnatural the word sounded coming from his mouth.

“Not when you don’t take your meds,” Ryuji added as he spun around in his seat to face him, a comment that was not needed in the slightest, Goro decided.

He squinted at his blond roommate, unmoving as he frowned at Ryuji continuing to eat his cereal. “I’ve never taken medication in my life.”

Ryuji snorted as Futaba hopped off her chair, shoving her empty bowl against Goro’s chest as she passed him to leave him in charge of her dishes. 

“You ready, Akira?” she asked as she stretched her arms above her head with a drawn out yawn.

“Yeah, let me just... tweet this...” Akira mumbled as he continued tapping on his phone without looking up at Futaba who responded with an impatient groan.

“You’re going to stream now?” Goro blurted out, trying his best to appear natural and not show how blatantly nervous he felt. He was kind of hoping to get the whole _complimenting Akira thing_ out of the way as soon as possible so Akira could just be kissing him already, but it seemed like the universe had other plans.

“Yup,” Akira replied as he stood up, not seeming to notice Goro’s nervousness as he met his eyes while pocketing his phone. “How was work?”

“Work was work,” Goro shrugged, wincing at how awkward he felt trying to appear casual. Ryuji stood up and, also, handed his empty cereal bowl to Goro so that he was holding a bowl in each of his hands. 

He now felt _extremely_ awkward.

“I wanna open cards now!” Ryuji announced as he scooped up all the boxes from the table that he could manage to bring them to Akira’s room. Futaba grabbed a considerably smaller amount of boxes and followed Ryuji down the hall.

“Let me take these,” Akira was saying as he suddenly appeared next to Goro to take the cereal bowls, a smile on his face as he kept his face close before pulling away. Goro watched as Akira took the dishes to the sink, feeling his heart beat rapidly in his chest as he thought over his non-existent plan.

Goro followed Akira to the kitchen, standing behind him with his back pressed against the edge of the island counter as he waited for Akira to finish washing the dishes. Goro mentally panicked as he quickly tried to think of a compliment good enough to give to Akira, but his brain malfunctioned entirely as he watched the messy head of hair turn around in its place so Akira was facing him again.

“Akira,” Goro’s mouth was speaking without his permission, swallowing a lump in his throat as Akira hummed in acknowledgement, the vibration of the sound making Goro shiver as he froze in his place.

“You– you’re, uh– heh,” Goro could feel the warmth of the deep red blush heating his face as he awkwardly cleared his throat. 

“Your hair,” he paused as he considered Akira’s messy locks resting on his forehead. “It looks... very dark today.”

Akira looked around the room as if doing so would grant him more context somehow. “I didn’t… do anything to it?”

Goro’s heart ached, suddenly feeling tense as he raised his shoulders stiffly. 

“Your height is decent,” he continued. “And your eyes are a perfectly normal distance apart.”

Akira furrowed his brows as Goro listed off each fact robotically, perplexed at his odd behavior. “I don’t understand what’s happening here.”

“Y-your face is good,” Goro stammered in a final attempt, feeling Akira’s warm breath against his flushed skin as a wide smile spread on his face. 

“Are you trying to compliment me?” Akira breathed out an amused laugh, chuckling quietly to himself as if Goro’s attempt at showing affection was _sooo_ funny.

Goro glared at Akira’s irritating smirk, refusing to believe that this child was really the target of his affection. Akira’s stupid, pretty eyes looked back at him with an infuriating amount of cockiness, and Goro trailed his gaze down Akira’s delicate features to stare at his annoying smirk that he wanted to wipe off his dumb, stupid face. 

“Hmm, Goro?” Akira purred as he leaned closer, his teasing smile not vanishing as he watched Goro expectantly. 

“You’re so _**frustrating**_ ,” Goro snapped as he watched Akira grin smugly, making Goro’s blood boil even more as he huffed in annoyance. “Your grades in high school were embarrassing, and you don’t even have a _real job,_ you’re immature and moronic and _**pathetic**_ and you have no _idea_ what the real world is like, Akira. Your friends are just as irritating as you are, and without _**me–**_ mmph–!”

Akira was cutting him off by firmly tangling his hand in Goro’s hair and pressing their lips together roughly, making Goro forget about his string of insults entirely as his brain melted into nothingness. All he could think was _of course_ Akira would kiss him when Goro was insulting him, rather than earlier when he was clearly putting a great deal of effort into complimenting him. Fucker.

Goro still kissed him back though. He _definitely_ kissed Akira back, humming happily as he stuck an inexperienced tongue in Akira’s mouth and gripped the fabric of his shirt, absentmindedly clenching a fist around the clothing as Goro rested his other hand on Akira’s jaw to pull him closer. He felt Akira’s hands running down his back to pull their bodies completely flush together, ridding any distance between them as they desperately slotted their lips together.

Goro had briefly imagined before what it would be like to kiss Akira, but he never let himself entertain the idea with too much detail by always forcing himself to quickly push away those thoughts about his best friend. But right now, all he wanted to do was melt into Akira’s touch, to hold him as close as possible and kiss him like he’s wanted to for longer than he could remember.

Goro was trapped between Akira and the island counter as they kissed for what felt like days, maybe even weeks or months or entire years, but was probably closer to only about a minute or two until a loud shriek broke them apart. 

Goro quickly jolted around to face where the noise had come from after shoving Akira off him, tensing as he saw Futaba standing at the end of the hallway with her hands covering her eyes.

“What happened?” Ryuji shouted, rushing in as soon as he heard Futaba’s mortified scream. 

“They were eating each other!” Futaba squawked, pointing at the two boys in the kitchen with an accusatory finger. She hesitantly removed the hand covering her eyes, assuming it was safe to look again, but her expression was still scarred as Ryuji glanced between them with furrowed brows. 

“It was disgusting,” Futaba added, far more dramatic than necessary to prove her point to Ryuji.

“Dude,” Ryuji spoke, tone serious as he looked at Akira who was already blushing and becoming redder from Ryuji’s acknowledgement, his eyelids opening wider out of nerves as he waited for whatever Ryuji was about to say. 

“Nice!” The blond cheered as he stuck out his hand for a fist bump, Akira instantly returning it with a bright smile. Ryuji then moved his fist in front of Goro, who didn’t return the gesture and instead blinked at his roommate’s hand until Ryuji grabbed his wrist and forcibly connected their knuckles together to bump fists.

Futaba groaned from behind him, clearly upset that Ryuji didn’t take her side. 

“I’m happy for you, too,” she admitted with an eye roll. “But I didn’t bring my boxes of potential ultra rares here for you two to mouthfuck the whole time. Let’s stream already.”

Goro sighed while resting his forehead in his hand, feeling embarrassment heat his face as he grimaced. “Why would you call it that?”

“I’ll be there in a second, guys, I swear,” Akira assured the two of them, shooing them away while placing a hand on Goro’s hip out of their eyesight. 

Ryuji gave him a thumbs up while Futaba eyed Akira suspiciously before telling him that he better not get too distracted, and they headed into Akira’s room without another word. 

Goro hadn’t moved throughout the whole ordeal, his eyes gently closed shut with his back facing Akira, his fingers still resting on his forehead in exasperation. He felt Akira’s hand on his hip tighten its hold as he pulled Goro closer to him, and the warm breath against his skin was the only warning Goro received before Akira was pressing his lips to the back of his neck.

“You know,” Akira mumbled absentmindedly as he circled his arms around Goro’s waist to hug him tightly. “There are some benefits to having a sleep schedule like mine.” 

Goro snorted once he finally moved his hand away from his face, turning his head to glance at Akira holding him from behind and pressing occasional kisses to his neck. “I highly doubt that.”

“There are,” Akira insisted with a smirk, the assuredness in his voice making Goro raise a skeptical eyebrow. “Like when I’m still awake to answer Ann’s calls from the opposite time zone.”

Goro hummed in interest. “How is Ann?”

“She told me last night that she’s glad Shiho has you and Hifumi to keep her company,” Akira smirked deviously as he tightened his embrace around Goro’s middle. “And that she got a few voicemails from Shiho after you left last night...”

Akira trailed off to press another kiss to Goro’s neck as the brunette froze in place, connecting the dots without needing Akira to explain the rest to him. Goro jerked back to life, detaching Akira’s lips from his skin as he spun himself in Akira’s embrace to look him in the eye.

“It was _your_ fault,” he glared at Akira, who was still holding Goro close enough that their noses were nearly brushing. “The way you asked me was terrible. If I had known what your goal was I would have rejected you simply because your proposal was so bad that it was almost offensive.”

“I was nervous,” Akira laughed sheepishly, looking like he probably wanted to run a nervous hand through his hair if he didn’t currently have his hands resting on Goro’s waist. “And that’s not even the first time I’ve tried.”

Goro’s eyes widened disbelievingly, his mind blanking as he tried to recall any time Akira had tried to ask him out in the past. “When?”

“Uh,” Akira took a shuddering breath as he recalled the memories of his past failed attempts. “Prom?”

“You didn’t–” Goro couldn’t remember Akira showing him _any_ signs of romantic attention in high school, until he suddenly recalled the only possible conversation Akira could be referring to. 

“When you asked me how I felt about _Sumire_ not having a prom date?” Goro glared, but he still let Akira pull him closer as he settled his arms around Akira’s neck. “I thought you were trying to set me up with her. I was so mad.”

Akira’s eyes widened as though he was just now, after all these years, realizing what a bad approach that was. “I was _getting_ to how you and I didn’t have dates either, but you stormed off before I could imply anything.”

Goro furrowed his brows. “You wanted both of us to go with her?”

“No–! I wanted _you_ to go with _me–”_

“Then why would you even mention her?” Goro breathed out a laugh as Akira defended his terrible plan. “And lead with her, of all things?”

“I was nervous then, too,” Akira whined before giving in and laughing along with Goro. “I’ve always been into you, I really thought you would pick up on it eventually. I mean, I gave you gifts.”

“You thought–” Goro paused as he snorted incredulously. “You thought the Mona plushies were _romantic?”_

“Morgana is a symbol of affection,” Akira countered with complete seriousness. “He oozes romance wherever he goes.”

Goro glanced at the cat in question splayed out on the back of the couch grooming himself unceremoniously, but he kept his mouth shut as he looked back at Akira with raised eyebrows.

“Besides, I gave you other things, too,” Akira continued. “And I don’t see _you_ putting in the effort to make a move on _me._ Unless your bad compliments were the best you’ve got…”

Goro scowled at Akira’s smug grin. “You want me to ask you?”

Akira nodded expectantly.

“ _You,”_ Goro jabbed an accusing finger against Akira’s chest, “wouldn’t be anywhere without _me,_ Akira. I’m the one who keeps you in check, so I might as well get boyfriend privileges for all my hard work.”

Akira caught Goro’s wrist before he could poke him for a second time, sliding his hand along Goro’s skin until their fingers were slotted together. He raised a playful eyebrow as Goro continued to glare, a giddy smile on Akira’s face as he squeezed his hand. 

“You want _boyfriend privileges,_ Goro?”

Goro scoffed as he ripped his hand out of Akira’s grip, but the blush beginning to spread across his cheeks betrayed his attempt to hide his embarrassment. “Like you _don’t?”_

“No, I do,” Akira’s smirk turned into a full-blown grin as he returned both his hands to trail down Goro’s waist, following the path with his eyes so intensely that Goro could feel Akira’s gaze on him as much as he felt the warm touch of his hands. “I _really want–”_

“Akira!” Futaba’s voice thundered from out of sight. “Come on!”

Akira slumped as he released a groan, bringing Goro’s arms still wrapped around his neck down with him as he did so.

“Guess I should go,” he sighed as he dropped his hands from Goro’s waist. Goro begrudgingly returned his hands to his sides as well, not sure what to do with them until he eventually decided to fiddle with his fingers awkwardly.

Akira shifted in place for a few seconds, looking at Goro with wide-blown pupils before clearing his throat. 

“So, uh,” he paused to run a hand through his hair out of nervous habit. “Are we..?”

“We are,” Goro grinned, feeling somewhat proud knowing that Akira’s nervousness was caused by _him._ Because Akira _likes him._ “But I think our next date should be considered our first official one. The last one didn’t count.”

Akira huffed an incredulous laugh, defeatedly lowering his shoulders as he looked up at Goro. “But I spent so much last time.”

Goro placed a gentle hand beneath Akira’s chin to make him stop slouching, smiling when they were at the same eye level again.

“You better hope to get lucky with those cards if you want to take me out again, Akira.”

Akira pressed a bruising kiss to his lips before pulling away all too quickly. “Who’s luckier than I am?” Akira asked, his confident smirk returning to his face.

Goro laughed as he smiled back at him, feeling affection blooming in his heart for his boyfriend. 

His _**boyfriend.**_

He could definitely get used to that.

Akira eventually took Morgana with him to join Ryuji and Futaba to start their stream once Goro insisted he didn’t keep them waiting any longer, not really in the mood to deal with Futaba at the peak of her impatience. Goro made his way to his own room after they parted, taking his phone out of his pocket while deciding if he should call Ann or Hifumi and Shiho first, but he stopped in his path when he noticed a new Morgana plush leaning against his door.

A smile lit up Goro’s face as he quickly picked up the plush from the floor, dusting it off as he examined it. 

This Mona was easily recognizable as thief Morgana, complete with a soft pink heart stitched into the paw of the stuffed cat. He snorted at how cheesy it was, that Akira stole his heart and that Goro was perfectly fine with proudly displaying that fact on his window sill with his growing collection of cat plushies.

* * *

Goro’s room quickly turned into a Mona shrine of its own, something he expected would happen once he gave Akira permission to gift him cat decor as he pleased, but Goro didn’t seem to mind Morgana’s face lining his walls as much as he thought it would. He actually found the soft plushies to be quite comforting when they welcomed him home each day from work and classes. 

Goro wished he was back home in his cat cave at this very moment, as he stood at work during an exhausting closing shift. It had been just over a week since he and Akira had officially gotten together, and Goro was thinking about what their fourth date would be to pass the time while he made drink after drink for the online orders rolling in as customers came in to pick up their drinks and leave.

At least he had Hifumi by his side helping him make the sugary monstrosities, and Shiho running the cash register for the occasional customers that were brave enough to actually order to a barista’s face, but for now the restaurant was entirely void of anyone.

The sound of customers entering the cafe wasn’t enough to make Goro break his focus, but Shiho’s loud, surprised gasp made him turn to face the front of the store to see what was so shocking.

“Ann!” Shiho shouted as she sprinted around the counter to hug her girlfriend. “What are you doing here?”

Trailing behind Ann were Akira and Ryuji carrying her luggage, the latter holding significantly more than the boy who had been occupying Goro’s mind throughout his entire shift. He stared at Akira from behind the bar, his mouth slightly ajar from dismay caused by both Ann’s unexpected early arrival and the fact that Akira was also here at Goro’s workplace, looking as ravishing as always.

“We finished the shoot early,” he heard Ann’s voice explain, but Goro couldn’t glance away from where Akira was running his eyes down Goro’s body, getting a good look at him in his green apron and his hair pulled into a low ponytail.

“And while New York was great,” Ann’s voice continued from elsewhere, “I _really_ missed my girlfriend.”

Ryuji grunted as he dropped Ann’s luggage onto an empty table. “Why couldn’t we drop your stuff off _before_ coming here?” he complained while slumping into an empty chair.

Akira set down the luggage he had as well before walking up to the counter, smiling determinedly without taking his eyes off Goro.

“You look cute,” he greeted as he leaned over the bar to give Goro a quick kiss, pulling away with an innocent smile that raised Goro’s suspicion instantly. “Did you make our drinks?”

“Those were _yours?”_ Goro scowled as Hifumi appeared next to him, a ridiculous drink in each of her hands and a matching incredulous expression as they both stared at Akira.

“Blame Ann,” he shrugged without elaborating further.

“Hey!” Ann shrieked offendedly as she stomped over to interject in their conversation, dragging an unexpecting Shiho along with her. “This is the drink I always get!”

“You don’t even like your coffee like this, Akira,” Goro added, raising an eyebrow once Ann finished her objection. “Did you purposefully order a complicated drink because you knew I was working right now?” 

Goro’s expression was blank, the state of the calm before the storm, but Akira didn’t cower as he put on a mischievous smile. 

“Depends,” Akira hummed as his eyes trailed along Goro’s body from across the counter. “What would you do if I did?”

Ann snorted out a loud, unattractive laugh, something that anyone outside of their friend group would be surprised to hear from one of the most in-demand models of the season. “Ryuji, I am so sorry for leaving you alone with this.”

Ryuji grunted a noise of agreement, but before he could fully dive into a rant about living with the new couple, the door to the cafe flung open behind him, Makoto rushing inside with a bright smile on her face and Haru hurrying behind her to keep up with her suddenly energetic girlfriend. Makoto looked refreshed and lively, the complete opposite of how drained she’s appeared for the past few months.

“I’m quitting!” she announced proudly once she had everyone’s attention.

Silence followed as everyone present in the room absorbed the information.

“R-right now?” Hifumi questioned, eyes wide with concern.

“No, not from here!” Makoto quickly corrected before taking a deep breath to start over. “Well, yes from here, _eventually._ But I’m just quitting law school for now,” she straightened her posture as her prideful grin returned. “I’m going to become a tattoo artist!”

Some sounds of surprise filled the room, but the gasps quickly turned to encouragements as everyone agreed that, while this was an unexpected turn of events, it was a surprisingly perfect fit for the younger Niijima sister.

“She’s going to practice on me!” Haru beamed as she tightly squeezed Makoto’s hand to show her support. Her eyes lit up even more as they landed on Ann, waving happily as she noticed her friend. “Hello, Ann!” 

“A-after I get good at practicing on oranges,” Makoto stuttered, redirecting the conversation back to her news with a wary laugh before darting her eyes around the cafe. “I thought Yusuke would be here at this time?” 

“You scheduled him for opening today,” Hifumi answered through gritted teeth, and Goro could tell that she was actively trying to make her voice sound polite like she was imitating Shiho’s teacher voice.

“Ah,” Makoto made a noise of acknowledgement before releasing a deep sigh. “I apologize for the inconsistent scheduling recently. The issue shouldn’t persist in the future.”

“Shiho!” Ann exclaimed suddenly, eyes wide with realization as she shook her girlfriend excitedly. “We should commission Makoto for matching tattoos! I want something small but meaningful.” 

Ann was beaming at Shiho, her girlfriend staring back blankly as she processed Ann’s sentiment and what the permanence of tattoos represented. Shiho eventually smiled back tenderly, her eyes glossy as tears started to form, blinking them away as she told Ann that she would like that.

“I want a Morgana tattoo,” Akira said distantly as he pictured it in his mind. “What do you think?” he raised an eyebrow as he met Goro’s gaze. “About tattoos. Hot or not?”

Goro hummed contemplatively, leaning further over the counter to lightly trail his fingers down Akira’s upper arm as he imagined it. “I think you could pull it off.”

Akira grinned, pleased at his response as he watched Goro drop his hand onto the counter between them. Akira bit the inside of his cheek, staring at Goro longingly as he lifted his sugary frappuccino from the bar. “Are you done here soon?”

Goro had about an hour of his shift left before they would lock up for the night, sighing sadly to tell this to Akira before being cut off by Makoto.

“Let’s lock up early tonight,” she said, smiling blissfully like she was still reeling from being freed from the stress that tied her down. 

Goro, Shiho, and Hifumi smiled back at her before finishing the final required closing procedures and throwing off their aprons once they could leave work for the night. 

“You know,” Makoto whispered for only Goro to hear once they were standing in the cold nighttime air and the doors to the cafe had been locked, “I was expecting you two to get together in high school.”

She laughed at his stunned face before saying goodnight and pulling Haru by the hand in the opposite direction.

The remaining six of them crowded onto the mostly-empty subway with all of Ann’s luggage for a short train ride to Shibuya. Hifumi and Shiho followed them back to their apartment so Ann could drop off her things, watching as the blonde greeted Morgana with a tight hug that, no matter how much Morgana loved Ann, caused the cat to squirm away from her in fear. 

Ann followed the girls back to their apartment after wishing them goodnight, gluing herself to Shiho’s side with a third-wheeling Hifumi who couldn’t even be bitter considering how happy she was that the couple was reunited.

It was late, and Goro couldn’t help but yawn once Ryuji had wandered off to the space of his room to leave Goro and Akira alone in the kitchen together. Having his shoes off wasn’t enough comfort for Goro after standing for so many hours without a break, he felt exhaustion starting to set in, and he wanted nothing more than to change into the softest clothes possible and climb into a warm bed.

Akira smiled amusedly as he watched Goro try to conceal his yawn once he noticed Akira watching him, but he was too late to avoid Akira’s eyes, and a hand was suddenly gripping Goro’s wrist and pulling him down the hall with determination, Akira scooping up Morgana awaiting his attention on the floor as they went. 

“I solved our dilemma, by the way,” Akira grinned as he used his hip to push open his bedroom door, Goro and Morgana in tow. “About who gets to sleep with Mona.” 

He let go of Goro’s wrist so he could gently set Morgana on his bed, taking a moment to appreciate the sight of the cat making himself comfortable on his blankets before spinning in place to look at Goro again, a satisfied smile blooming on his face. “We’ll just have to share a bed.”

Goro snorted, but he was fully accepting of that compromise as long as Akira was actually willing to sleep at a normal hour. 

“Let me go change,” he pointed his thumb in the direction of his room, about to turn to leave before Akira caught his wrist again. 

“Wear my clothes,” Akira insisted, sending Goro a pleading look that made the brunette quickly cave.

“Fine.”

Akira rushed to his closet to dig through his clothes until he found something suitable, handing Goro shorts and a folded t-shirt that was too big for either of them. 

“Turn around,” Goro instructed, to which Akira rolled his eyes but still adhered to. Goro slipped on the shorts once Akira’s back was facing him, keeping his own shirt on as he unfolded the white t-shirt Akira gave him to get a good look at it.

Goro sighed when he saw Morgana’s large, airbrushed head painted onto the shirt. 

“Is something wrong?” Akira asked, likely with a wide smile on his face judging by his tone of voice.

Goro unbuttoned his shirt to put on Akira’s t-shirt, admittedly more comfortable than he would have thought, before chucking his button-up at Akira’s head. 

“How do I look?” Goro asked, giving Akira permission to finally turn around and get a good look at him.

Akira caught Goro’s button-up as it slid off his head into his arms, grinning like a child on Christmas morning as he turned around to look at Goro, his hair still pulled back in a low ponytail that Akira insisted he not mess with after work, wearing Akira’s custom Morgana t-shirt that was longer than his shorts. 

Akira didn’t respond, only sprinting up to Goro to pull him into a shameless kiss to say his answer for him.

Goro laughed as he pulled away from Akira to sit on the edge of his bed, beckoning Morgana to curl onto his lap with a few tempting pets to his fur. “You wanted a lockscreen?”

Akira took a second to react, his brows slightly furrowed until the recognition of their past conversation flooded his features. He grinned, quickly taking out his phone without removing his eyes from Goro’s smirk.

“Lay back,” Akira gently pushed Goro’s shoulder until he was laying against Akira’s pile of cat pillows, holding Morgana close against his chest as he smiled at Akira’s phone. Akira snapped the picture of him, admiring his screen for a few seconds until the corners of his lips quirked up in a smile.

“Perfect,” Akira sighed happily as he tapped on the screen.

Once Akira had his new lockscreen set, he tossed his phone onto the bed, following its path with his own body as he crawled into the warm cocoon of blankets with his boyfriend and his cat.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow that took a long time to write. 
> 
> anyway imagine being akira and showing up at ur own apartment door with flowers because u want goro to feel like he's going on a date with someone who's more than just his roommate and he doesnt even get it
> 
> pog in the chat for j0ker420 boyfriend announcement


End file.
